24 Jul Exact Sciences advancing ‘Cologuard 2.0,’ blood tests for cancer
Robotic equipment allows multiple samples to be processed quickly at Madison-based Exact Sciences, the maker of Cologuard, the stool-based colon cancer screening test. – STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Exact Sciences plans to seek approval soon of an updated Cologuard stool-based colon cancer screening test and launch a blood test to detect cancer that can linger after surgery.
The Madison-based company is also developing blood tests to screen for colon cancer and for many types of cancer at once. But whether it starts a large, expensive study of its multi-cancer screening test next year could depend on whether Congress tells Medicare to pay for it.
“Our mission is simply to help eradicate cancer with tests that help prevent it, detect it earlier when it’s more treatable and also to guide therapy,” CEO Kevin Conroy said at the company’s annual investor day June 21, according to a transcript of the event.
The biggest news is that the new Cologuard, sometimes called “Cologuard 2.0,” was found to be better than the original in identifying cancer and had a 30% lower false positive rate, meaning fewer people need to get follow-up colonoscopies.