Accurate disease staging is critical for choosing the most efficacious therapy.
PATHOLOGICAL VS. MOLECULAR DISEASE STAGING
Disease staging utilizes results from one or more classes of diagnostic tests, such as pathological or molecular to group patients according to required treatment regimes and expected clinical outcomes. Relative to quantitative molecular tests, pathological staging is often less informative than is necessary to answer questions related to:
| • | Measuring the aggression of a disease |
| • | Progression and relapse |
| • | Response to therapy |
By using molecular markers, one can get a more detailed picture of the disease status at the molecular level that provides information on:
| • | Severity of disease |
| • | Prognosis |
| • | Whether it has a profile appropriate for treatment |
Staging can play a key role in patient stratification within clinical trials and in the choice between two therapies.
