How much does lung cancer gene testing cost

If conditions permit, it is recommended that all patients with squamous cell lung cancer and adenocarcinoma of the lung undergo genetic testing. The first gene that should be tested is the EGFR gene, which has a mutation-positive probability of more than 30% in non-small cell lung cancer patients in my country, which means that 1/3 of patients are suitable for TKI drugs in the first line. It may take a long time (one to two weeks) for patients to wait for genetic testing, and some hospitals have medical insurance for this part. It is particularly important to emphasize that this wait is worthwhile because the result is crucial for the next step of treatment. In addition, the EML4-ALK fusion gene should also be tested. If the cell expresses the fusion gene positively, there is another targeted drug treatment, which is crizotinib, which is not familiar to the public, but the incidence rate in my country is no more than lung cancer. We give priority to EGFR gene testing and then EML4-ALK testing.

Different gene testing methods require different times. For example, for ALK gene testing, the results can be obtained in about 12 days using the immunohistochemistry method Ventana IHC; it takes about 34 days to get the results using FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization); and it takes about 57 working days to get the results using PCR (polymerase chain reaction), a more complex molecular biological testing method (internationally, genetic testing results are required to be available within two weeks).

Different genetic testing methods have different costs. Among them, immunohistochemistry testing is relatively cheap, costing about a few hundred yuan. Other genetic testing methods, such as FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) and PCR (polymerase chain reaction), are slightly more expensive. In addition, different hospitals have different numbers of genetic sites to test, so the more the number of tests, the more expensive it is.