Later this year, doctors in the U.S. will be able to use a gene test to guide thyroid cancer surgery. The test helps determine when patients harbor a particularly dangerous form of the disease, which can require surgeons to do a second operation on top of the initial diagnostic procedure. Knowing that a patient has this particular form of thyroid cancer could enable surgeons to instead do a single, more extensive surgery.
The company behind the test, Veracyte, already sells a unique genetic assay that helps doctors decide whether to perform surgery on thyroid cancer patients at all.
Both tests are part of a broader movement in recent years to bring genetic tests into medical care, with oncology leading the way.
Read the full, original story: Gene Test Helps Patients Avoid Thyroid Surgery
