PrOnc Tumor Source – pro
ProOnc Tumor Source is a proprietary test from Prometheus, which purports to identify the tissue of origin of unknown primary cancers. The test identifies 25 different tumor types, including colon, liver, brain, breast, kidney, lung, ovary, pancreas, prostate and testis, and measures the expression level of 48 microRNA biomarkers. ProOnc TumorSource Dx uses a proprietary classifier to assign a primary site to the cancer sample based on the microRNA expression in the tumor and may become a critical tool in the detection of cancer of unknown primary (CUP). Prometheus claims 84% – 80% overall sensitivity tissue-of-origin/histological type
and 90% – 87% sensitivity of single predicted origin. Whether this degree of accuracy is clinically meaningful has not been proven and should be investigated.
Varadhachary GR, Raber MN, Matamoros A, Abbruzzese JL. Carcinoma of unknown primary with a colon-cancer profile-changing paradigm and emerging definitions. Lancet Oncol. 2008;9(6):596-599.
Varadhachary GR, Greco FA. Overview of patient management and future directions in unknown primary carcinoma. Semin Oncol. 2009;36(1):75-80.