Veracyte undertook 100,000 Afirma genomic tests to thwart unwanted surgeries diagnosed for Thyroid Cancer

Veracyte asserted that till date its has performed 100,000 Afirma genomic tests to quell unwanted surgeries in patients being assessed for potential thyroid cancer. The announcement follows the National Thyroid Awareness Month in January. Veracyte also announced that since its Afirma solution became available in 2011, the company has touched over 3,25,000 patients with Afirma and thwarted more than 40,000 patients to get their thyroids removed unnecessarily.

According to Data, Afirma Genomic Sequencing Classifier can save nearly 70% of patients with benign thyroid nodules from unnecessary surgery by identifying their nodules as benign following indeterminate results on their fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsies.  The enhanced Afirma GSC, which identifies 30 percent more benign cases than the original Afirma test, was introduced in May 2017.

Bonnie Anderson, Veracyte’s chairman and chief executive officer stated “With the advances that we have made in combining deep RNA sequencing and machine learning, we are committed to helping more patients avoid unnecessary surgery, while informing surgical decision-making on those who are likely to have thyroid cancer.”

Dr. Kepal N. Patel, Chief, Division of Endocrine Surgery, NYU Langone Medical Center claimed “Distinguishing benign from cancerous thyroid nodules has historically been challenging for physicians when traditional testing results are inconclusive. Unfortunately, patients have often paid a high price for this diagnostic uncertainty, with many patients undergoing surgery just to find out they didn’t have cancer.”

Patients who undergo full removal of the thyroid (thyroidectomy) and nearly one in five patients who undergo a partial thyroidectomy experience a loss of thyroid function (hypothyroidism), which requires lifelong daily thyroid hormone replacement medication. Patients with hypothyroidism can develop weight gain, fatigue, sleepiness and other such uncontrollable and rampant symptoms difficult to regulate.