Rosetta Genomics Receives Approved for First-of-its-kind Thyroid Cancer Diagnostic Assay

Rosetta Genomics Ltd. (NASDAQ:ROSG) announced conditional approval status for RosettaGX Reveal™, its novel microRNA classifier for the diagnosis of indeterminate thyroid Fine Needle Aspirate (FNA) smears from the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) under the Company’s Molecular Oncology permit. RosettaGX Reveal is the only molecular test in the thyroid market that has been validated in a multicenter, international, blinded study using convenient, routinely prepared cytology slides.
According to the company:

The assay is CLIA certified, but New York requires an additional license from the NYSDOH for CLIA-certified tests to be offered to patients in the state. With this conditional approval, RosettaGX Reveal is now available in all 50 states. In making the assay available pending final approval, the NYSDOH requires the Company to provide any additional information that it may request within 60 business days.

Kenneth A. Berlin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rosetta Genomics said:

We are very pleased to have approval to market this important cancer diagnostic for the benefit of physicians and patients in the vast New York market. It is estimated that nearly 550,000 FNAs are performed on thyroid nodules each year in the U.S. and that approximately 740,000 are performed annually in Europe. Interpretation of FNA samples is not always straightforward, leading to an indeterminate result in up to 30% of the samples. Many patients with indeterminate results undergo surgery as a precaution despite the fact that up to 80% of these cases are benign. This exposes patients to unnecessary surgical risk and costs the healthcare system hundreds of millions of dollars. Through an analysis of our validation study data, we believe we can help prevent up to 75% of unnecessary thyroid surgeries.

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