Barriers to testing
“The most frequent barrier to molecular testing in every region was cost,” the survey authors note.
Insufficient amount of tumor cells was the main reason for molecular testing failures along with inadequate tissue quality.
The majority of respondents who order tests and treat patients were sure that the laboratories they use perform appropriate validation of molecular tests, while almost all of those who perform or interpret assays said they perform validation tests in their labs.
Only 30% of respondents who request tests and treat patients have access to molecular testing labs within their own institutions; the remaining respondents have to outsource testing completely or partially.
Most respondents who test and treat patients also have multidisciplinary tumor boards to discuss patients with NSCLC, but almost one quarter of the same group indicated their board met less than once a month.
“Turnaround time is a barrier to molecular testing across the world,” the authors continue, with 29% of those who request tests and treat patients reporting that it typically takes 10 days or more to receive molecular testing results.
Interestingly, the highest percentage of respondents who reported this long turnaround time were in North America.
Perhaps encouragingly, 41% of respondents who perform or interpret assays indicated they were dissatisfied with the condition of molecular testing in their country, although in this regard, the United States and Canada had the lowest rates of dissatisfaction.
In fact, 39% of those who request tests and treat patients ranked the conditions of molecular testing in their country as “average or below,” while 42% of respondents in the tissue acquisition track ranked the conditions of molecular testing as average or below, the worst rankings coming from Latin America and the ROW.
Low quality of tissue samples was another reason respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of molecular testing in their country.
Smeltzer is a research consultant for the Association of Community Cancer Centers.
This article first appeared on Medscape.com.