It has been demonstrated that responsiveness to Tarceva® is much higher in patients with tumors bearing common EGFR mutations versus conventional chemotherapy. ^4-6

Clinical treatment guidelines recommend EGFR mutation testing in patients diagnosed with NSCLC, particularly adenocarcinoma, to aid selection of a potentially efficacious targeted therapy.^7-9  

Mutations within the EGFR gene can be detected in either tumour tissue or blood-circulating tumour DNA. ^7-9  

The SmPC for Tarceva® in the EU and the Tarceva® US Prescribing Information now include the option of blood-based plasma testing added to tumour tissue based testing.^2,3

Blood-based EGFR mutation testing using cobas® V2 demonstrated high specificity (97.9%) and good sensitivity (72.1%) which offers a
convenient and easily accessible diagnostic method to complement tissue-based tests.

For more details on the publication, please click here.

The cobas® EGFR mutation test v2

The cobas EGFR Mutation Test v2 is a real-time Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for the qualitative detection of defined mutations of EGFR gene in NSCLC patients. It is the only clinically validated and FDA-approved test for detecting EGFR mutations in blood plasma for NSCLC patients.^{10, 11}

To learn more about liquid biopsy, please click here.