Labcorp Plasma Detect

Labcorp has launched Plasma Detect, a tumor-informed, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) assay for molecular residual disease detection (MRD) in circulating tumor DNA to identify early-stage colon cancer patients who are at increased risk of recurrence after surgery or adjuvant chemotherapy. The research-use-only assay is suitable for clinical applications such as precision monitoring for clinical trial enrichment strategies and therapeutic response assessment, and can be applied across solid tumors, Labcorp said. The assay defines a tumor-informed MRD signature using WGS of tumor DNA, germline DNA from buffy coat, and cell-free DNA collected at the landmark time point, according to the company's website. These data are analyzed with a proprietary machine learning algorithm to identify thousands patient-specific somatic tissue variants, creating a signature that can be tracked over time to determine ctDNA status.

The new assay complements the targeted Labcorp Plasma Focus assay and Labcorp Plasma Complete comprehensive profiling solution. All three assays were developed by Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx), a Labcorp company, and are performed in PGDx's Baltimore-based CAP-accredited and CLIA-certified laboratory.