Veracyte announces data on nasal swab sampling for early lung cancer detection

• Veracyte (VCYT -0.5%) announces new data supporting the potential use of nasal swab samples with its molecular lung cancer risk test in patients with lung nodules, the first indicator of cancer. The results were virtually presented at the CHEST annual meeting.
• Its genomic smoking index was originally based on data from samples collected from the main lung airway which are difficult to obtain.
• A study testing its nasal classifier, still under development, showed 89% sensitivity (correctly identifying true positives) and 61% specificity (correctly identifying true negatives) compared to airway samples. In other words, tests on nasal samples missed 11% of the positives and incorrectly classified 39% of the negatives as positive (39% false positive rate).
• The company says it continues to refine the algorithm for the nasal classifier to account for variables such as nodule size and characteristics, smoking status and age. It plans to release additional data before year-end followed by market release in the U.S. in H2 2021.
• https://seekingalpha.com/news/3623304-veracyte-announces-data-on-nasal-swab-sampling-for-early-lung-cancer-detection