Intermountain signs collaborative research agreement with Myriad

Intermountain Healthcare and Myriad Genetics today announced they have signed a collaborative research agreement.  The purpose of this agreement is to perform research and validation studies on transformative molecular diagnostic tests being developed by Myriad in an effort to improve the care and treatments for patients at Intermountain and around the world. This collaboration highlights the shared purpose of Myriad and Intermountain in improving outcomes and the quality of life for patients. 

The first project under this collaboration, PRO 008, is designed to further expand the utility of the Prolaris test by analyzing biopsy samples of 200 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer.  This study will assess the ability of the Prolaris test to predict which men are at a heightened risk of biochemical recurrence and therefore should be given more aggressive therapy for their disease.  The goal of this, and Myriad's other Prolaris studies underway in multiple centers in the United States and Europe, is to demonstrate the prognostic ability of the Prolaris test in assessing a patient's risk of biochemical recurrence of disease and death from disease. 

"We are thrilled to be partnering with Myriad to further research across a number of diseases in an effort to improve patient care," said Brent Wallace, MD, Intermountain's Chief Medical Officer.  "We look forward to embarking on our prostate cancer collaboration with Myriad and hope the findings from this study will help define the clinical benefit of the Prolaris test. This will assist in helping men diagnosed with prostate cancer to understand the aggressiveness of their disease and make better informed decisions about appropriate treatment." 

"Intermountain is committed to improving patient outcomes which is in perfect alignment with the core mission of Myriad," said Peter Meldrum, President and Chief Executive Officer of Myriad Genetics. "This research collaboration will have great potential to help patients by furthering research on molecular diagnostic tests which can assist healthcare providers to effectively guide treatment decisions and determine the risk of disease progression and recurrence."