Baltimore-based blood test makes treatment plans clearer for cancer patients

A blood test based from a South Baltimore lab is making treatment clearer for cancer patients.

HaystackMRD, made by Haystack Oncology within Quest Diagnostics, looks for signs of cancer that conventional methods may miss.

While it's been in development for many, many years, the test was made clinically available for oncologists and pharmaceutical partners in late 2024.

Finding the remaining cancer

After going through treatments, even surgery, there's always the possibility that cancer can remain in the body.

How much of the cancer is left can determine the next steps. 

An MRI, CT scan, and other imaging techniques have become the standard of care to figure this out, but the HaystackMRD is also helping answer the question.

"The questions that persist for the patient are, 'Was the therapy I received working? Is it working if I'm currently on therapy?' said Dan Edelstein, Haystack Oncology's general manager. "'Did my cancer come back?'"

The blood test looks for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the patient, which is a sign of cancer.

Hillary Sloane, Haystack Oncology's senior director of medical affairs, said the test helps give a more precise picture.

"We know that by the time you see a recurrence on imaging, the disease has already advanced to a degree," Sloane said. "Now we can look in the blood and truly know, with a greater level of sensitivity, whether a patient really is cured."

But Sloane and Edelstein say it's just about giving more concrete information for doctors and their patients.

"There are a lot of these murky decision points that physicians and patients have to make," Sloane said. "The goal of this test is really to make those decisions more data-driven."

No one test is the same, as each one is built with a piece of a patient's tumor tissue. First-time patients get their results in 30 days, while follow-up test results come back in seven-to-ten days.

Dr. Eric Christenson, an assistant professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University, has been using the test on his patients for months now.

He said it's been making treatment plans clearer for him and his patients.

"Certainly have had examples where we were kind of on the fence about doing chemotherapy to begin with, and [then the test] came back with a positive result," Christenson said. "It illustrated the importance of kinda going through with that chemo and they're doing well."

HaystackMRD can be used for any cancer patient with a solid tumor. Anyone interested should talk with their doctor.

You can also learn more here.

Developing the test

HaystackMRD is the result of decades of work, starting with Johns Hopkins researchers.

The FDA granted the test with a Breakthrough Device Designation in August.

"The new designation adds to growing evidence of the value of the Haystack MRD test for both clinical and pharmaceutical applications," Quest Diagnostics said in a news release.

At this point, there have been thousands of HaystackMRD tests administered, according to Edelstein. The testing has mostly been for patients in the U.S., but there have also been some done for patients in other countries.