Development of a Decision-Analytic Model for the Application of STR-Based Provenance Testing of Transrectal Prostate Biopsy Specimens

Abstract

Given the rapidly declining pricing of STR-based identity testing, it is likely that testing to confirm the identity of positive prostate biopsy samples will be a cost-effective method for preventing treatment errors stemming from misidentification. Studies to formally establish the frequency of specimen provenance errors in routine clinical practice would therefore seem justified.

The Clinical and Economic Implications of Specimen Provenance Complications in Diagnostic Prostate Biopsies

“…19 The cost of repeat biopsy was extracted from a previous economic analysis. 20 To account for variation in reimbursement across different health care plans we adjusted treatment costs using the payer mix data reported by ASCOÒ in 2014 (57% that of CMS). 21 Costs for private payers were inflated by 18% relative to CMS reimbursements.…”

Mini- and Micro-Satellite Markers in Health, Disease and Evolution

“…Similarly, Fragile X syndrome , caused by an expansion of a CGG repeat in the fragile X gene, exceeds a threshold length at which the protein produced by the gene cannot be detected [ 183 ]. STRs have also been used for the prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome using amniotic cells [ 184 ], the detection of hemophilia A and B [ 185 , 186 ], the diagnosis of prostate adenocarcinoma in transrectal prostate biopsy specimens [ 187 ], the detection of Duchenne muscular dystrophy [ 188 ] and the duplication screening in Charcot-Marie-Tooth patients [ 189 ]. The requirement of very small amount of DNA, pure or even degraded to some extent, for the analysis of microsatellite markers as well as their adaption to highthroughput systems favored their use in linkage analysis genetics.…”