Key opinion leaders delve into the challenges posed by payers, costs, out-of-pocket maximums, and the need for letters of medical necessity, while also addressing additional sources of resistance encountered in clinical practice.
Zofia Piotrowska, MD, MHS, shares insights into the challenges and advantages of diagnostic testing practices at Massachusetts General Hospital, including the benefits of on-site testing, the need for less streamlined consent forms, and areas for improvement to expedite the diagnostic testing ordering process.
Key opinion leaders examine the current National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines regarding the utilization of liquid and tissue biopsies, highlighting the necessity for the NCCN to prioritize and recommend concurrent testing as the preferred approach over relying on a single liquid or tissue biopsy alone.
The expert panel underscores the critical importance of rapid diagnostic testing and identification of driver alterations to optimize patient outcomes, given the often-narrow therapeutic window for chemotherapy and targeted therapies.
Martin Dietrich, MD, PhD, shares his approach to optimizing the use of diagnostic testing from both a tissue perspective and cost perspective, noting he routinely orders tissue and liquid biopsies during the initial patient visit if prior testing has not been conducted.