Dr. Matthew Goldberg, Senior Vice President for Medical at Castle Biosciences, discusses the uncertainty clinicians face when determining treatments for skin cancer due to the limitations of traditional pathology reports. Castle's gene expression profile tests were developed to improve the accuracy of risk stratification for patients with cutaneous melanoma and high-risk cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. These tests provide prognostic information by analyzing the tumor's RNA, offering more granular and accurate risk assessment and informing about the intensity of follow-up and long-term risk management strategies.

Matthew explains, "So this is an important topic for dermatologists who are really on the front lines of skin cancer diagnosis and management for patients who are confronting skin cancer today. I'm a board-certified dermatologist and dermatopathologist by training. And to me, I think that the core uncertainty is centered around some of the known limitations around the prognostic accuracy of pathology. That's kind of worth unpacking here, but I think what it comes down to is that dermatologists are involved in identifying concerning skin lesions, identifying and, through biopsy, taking a skin sample, and finding skin cancers."

"Dermatopathologists are the collaborative colleagues who interpret the skin biopsy samples and return the pathological diagnoses to the dermatologist. For the treating clinician, the key task is to understand the implications of the types of skin cancers identified in this process to determine the most appropriate, risk-aligned downstream management for patients with these skin cancers."

"So Castle Biosciences has developed a range of tests that are really focused on impactful skin cancers that are some of the biggest challenges for dermatologists and the patients that we serve in the clinic, specifically around cutaneous melanoma with the DecisionDx-Melanoma gene expression profile test and also high-risk cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas with the DecisionDx-SCC test."

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