Caris Life Sciences launches significant enhancements to industry-leading cancer tumor profiling service

- Key components include an upgraded online physician portal, simplified genomic profile and newly-added biomarkers to support more informed therapeutic selections

IRVING, Texas, Oct. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Caris Life Sciences®, a leading biosciences company focused on fulfilling the promise of personalized medicine, today launched significant enhancements to its Molecular Intelligence™ tumor profiling service. These enhancements include significant updates to MI Portal™, the company's online physician resource, a streamlined molecular profiling panel structure and the addition of two biomarkers.

Revamped MI Portal™ – This newly upgraded interface enables a physician or other authorized medical staff to securely and conveniently order Molecular Intelligence™ services online, manage patient reports, create custom alerts to activate or complete a test and more.

Simplified profile structure – In response to physician feedback and ordering trends, Caris' two existing molecular panels (formerly MI Profile™ and MI Profile™ PLUS) have been consolidated into one streamlined service, now simply called MI Profile™. This multi-platform, pan-tumor biomarker analysis for therapeutic decision support and clinical trials matching is particularly helpful when selecting optimal treatment for patients with rare tumors or difficult-to-treat, refractory disease.

GNAQ and IDH2 biomarkers added – As part of the company's commitment to adding the most clinically relevant biomarker-to-drug associations to its tumor profiling service, Caris has added two new biomarkers – GNAQ mutation and IDH2 both assessed by sequencing.

"We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure cancer patients have access to the latest diagnostic tools to help give them the best possible chance to defeat their disease," said David D. Halbert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Caris Life Sciences. "We are unrelenting in our commitment to innovation. These newly announced enhancements further establish our position as the leader in comprehensive, clinically relevant tumor profiling."

Caris Molecular Intelligence™ uses multiple evidence-guided profiling technologies — IHC, FISH/CISH, PCR and Next-Generation Sequencing – to provide oncologists with the most relevant, clinically actionable potential treatment information to help them personalize care for their patients. Unlike other commercially available tumor profiling services, Molecular Intelligence™ more completely interrogates a patient's unique tumor biology, assessing additional important biological components like RNA and protein expression levels to help an oncologist develop an individualized treatment plan. For a complete list of assays and biomarkers included in the MI Profile panel, visit the MI Profile menu at www.CarisMolecularIntelligence.com/profilemenu.

About Caris Life Sciences

Caris Life Sciences is a leading biosciences company focused on fulfilling the promise of personalized medicine. As the first commercial mover in comprehensive molecular profiling in oncology, Caris Molecular Intelligence™ is an industry vanguard, with more than 50,000-plus patients profiled and counting. Ordered by nearly 6,000 oncologists in 58 countries, Molecular Intelligence correlates molecular data generated from a patient's tumor with biomarker/drug associations derived from clinical cancer literature. Using a variety of advanced and clinically-relevant technologies, Caris provides oncologists with the most clinically actionable information to help them personalize treatment for cancer patients. The company is also developing a series of blood tests based on its proprietary Carisome® platform — a revolutionary blood-based testing technology for diagnosis, prognosis, and theranosis of cancer and other complex diseases. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Caris Life Sciences offers services throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia and other international markets. To learn more, please visit www.carislifesciences.com.