Thus far, the promise of precision medicine has been directed largely toward the field of oncology in terms of recommending personalized treatments based on molecular biomarker tests. But increasingly, the knowledge of if specific individuals will or won't benefit from certain treatments is informing providers in a broader set of diseases.

OncoDxRx , a precision functional genomics company based in California, announced clinical results of a study that examined treatment and outcomes for 30 NSCLC patients whose healthcare providers used its PGA blood test. Specifically, the blood test was used to predict drug efficacy (or drug response) and identify the best drug candidates for refractory, metastatic or relapsed patients. The results of OncoDxRx's study were published in the prestigious journal Onco (https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7523/4/3/12).

OncoDxRx said that it's CLIA/CAP-validated lab test is the only commercially ready blood test that can predict patient response to the existing 700+ cancer drugs and select the best treatment options.

"This clinical study makes clear that a blood test capable of predicting patient responses to current existing drugs could fundamentally shift the treatment paradigm," said OncoDxRx, in a news release. "Broad adoption of this important advancement could result in significant improvements in treatment outcomes."

Should OncoDxRx's PGA test become part of routing care, it is likely to significantly improve more than just patient outcomes. That's because there is a financial burden of failed treatments especially three-fourth of patients do not respond clinically to precision medicine. OncoDxRx found that "patients who respond to their targeted therapy incur on average $6,091 less per year in total medical costs (not including the cost of targeted therapy) than non-responders."

That's because they have fewer inpatient and ED admissions, fewer outpatient visits, lower spending on antidepressants and pain medication, among other factors.

"PGA can therefore help payers and patients save on both pharmacy and medical costs," the company said. "On the pharmacy side, rather than placing an unresponsive patient requiring biologic prescription therapy on trial-and-error by default, a PGA test result could lead the provider to prescribe an alternate, most effective and less costly therapy at the onset."

Even though there are quite a few approved classes of targeted therapies, only about 10% of patients are responders and actually benefit from these precision treatments.

Lung cancer is not the only cancer type the company is targeting. OncoDxRx is ready to introduce PGA Breast and PGA Pancreatic tests as well.