Cancer, Pathology Organizations Developing Clinical Guidelines for MMR, MSI Testing

The College of American Pathologists (CAP), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), and Fight Colorectal Cancer (Fight CRC) are collaborating on the development of clinical guidelines for testing DNA mismatch repair (MMR) and microsatellite instability (MSI) status in patients with a range of cancer types.

On Wednesday, the groups opened a public comment period, asking relevant stakeholders — including pathologists who refer and perform molecular testing, oncologists, laboratory personnel, and healthcare professionals — for their views on draft guidelines entitled “MMR and MSI Testing in Patients Being Considered for Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy,” to make sure that the final recommendations are clinically practical.

The public has until March 13 to weigh in.

The panel developing these guidelines is specifically seeking to answer questions about which test modality best predicts DNA MMR, whether cancer type matters when choosing a testing modality, whether MMR by immunohistochemistry, MSI by PCR, or MSI by next-generation sequencing results predict improved clinical outcomes in patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors, and whether tumor mutation burden (TMB) can predict improved clinical outcomes in patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors.

Source: https://www.genomeweb.com/cancer/cancer-pathology-organizations-developing-clinical-guidelines-mmr-msi-testing