A clinical impact study of dermatologists' use of diagnostic gene expression profile testing to guide patient management.

Aim: Cutaneous melanocytic neoplasms with diagnostic and/or clinical ambiguity pose patient management challenges.

Methods

Six randomized case scenarios with diagnostic/clinical uncertainty were described with/without a benign or malignant diagnostic gene expression profile (GEP) result.

Results

Clinical impact was assessed by reporting the mean increase/decrease of management changes normalized to baseline (n = 32 dermatologists). Benign GEP results prompted clinicians to decrease surgical margins (84.2%). Malignant GEP results escalated surgical excision recommendations (100%). A majority (72.2%) reduced and nearly all (98.9%) increased follow-up frequency for benign or malignant GEP results, respectively. There was an overall increase in management plan confidence with GEP results.

Conclusion

Diagnostic GEP tests help guide clinical decision-making in a variety of diagnostically ambiguous or clinicopathologically discordant scenarios.