4 replies to this topic

[John]

Hi Guys,

I recently had to change Onc's because my old one moved his practice kinda far away from where I am.  It's been a little struggle in switching to a new Onc because they do things a bit differently and I'm slowly working on adjusting to the change.  One thing that's different is that they use a different lab for PCR testing.  I used to have my PCR testing done at Genzyme and the new Onc uses Caris Life Sciences.  I was wondering if any of you have Caris as your lab and if you're happy with them.  I know that the calibration of the equipment between PCR testing labs can be different but since I'm PCRU and have been for the past four tests, my thinking is the equipment calibration shouldn't be much of a factor.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

John 

[CallMeLucky]

Hey John - Your question has me curious.  We often hear that you can't compare PCR results from one lab to another and I've heard that when you switch labs, you are pretty much starting your trend over (in other words forget about your previous results and the trend they were on, take your first test at the new lab as your new baseline and trend from there) In your case however, you are PCRU based on the current lab.  So if your first PCR with the new lab is also PCRU what does that mean from a trending perspective?  I will be curious to hear some other responses from someone like Trey.

Congratulations on being PCRu and sorry you have to go through a Dr change.

[Trey]

The inter-lab variablility does not apply if someone is PCRU assuming both labs use PCRs with the same sensitivity levels (and most labs have the same sensitivity levels these days).  So no worries.