ARUP Laboratories Applauds FDA's Decision on the Value of KRAS-Mutation Testing in Colorec...( SALT LAKE CITY Aug....),Health

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- ARUP Laboratories, a national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory and a leader in innovative laboratory research and development, supports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) decision to put KRAS on the label of two targeted drugs, Vectibix (panitumumab) and Erbitux (cetuximab). On July 17, 2009, the FDA noted that, "retrospective analyses of metastatic colorectal cancer trials have not shown a treatment benefit for Erbitux/Vectibix in patients whose tumors had KRAS mutations in codon 12 or 13," and that the use of the drugs is not recommended for the treatment of colorectal cancer patients with these mutations.

ARUP offers leading-edge KRAS mutation-detection testing in colon-cancer patients which can identify nearly all of the patients who will not benefit from taking either Vectibix or Erbitux. These drugs cost tens of thousands of dollars per course of therapy and simply running ARUP's KRAS mutation-detection test can potentially eliminate ineffective patient treatment and decrease health care expenses. ARUP's technical bulletin, "KRAS Mutation Detection in Colorectal Cancer; For Determining Mutational Status that Confers Resistance to Anti-EGFR Therapy," elaborates on this testing and can be found at www.aruplab.com.

"In the United States, colorectal cancer is the third most common form of cancer and individuals have a 6 percent lifetime risk of developing this disease," said Executive Vice President
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