# CancerTYPE ID

Source: https://onco.cc/drugs/cancertype-id/  
OnCo record `cancertype-id` (Test). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A tissue test for cancers whose starting point cannot be found that reads 92 genes to suggest which organ the cancer came from.

## Summary

Hologic states that "CancerTYPE ID uses real-time RT-PCR to measure the expression of 92-genes in the patient's tumor" and "can differentiate between 50 different tumor types and subtypes", and that "It has not been cleared or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration." In a multisite validation of 790 tumours its overall sensitivity was 87 per cent for tumour type and 82 per cent for subtype (Kerr 2012). Palmetto MolDX article A53101 gives Medicare billing instructions for it under CPT 81540; the article does not itself state coverage.

## Fields

- Kind: Test
- Status: established
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Also known as: Cancer TYPE ID; 92-gene molecular cancer classifier
- Tags: test; rna
- Brand: CancerTYPE ID
- Modality: Gene-expression tissue-of-origin classifier (92-gene RT-PCR)
- Mechanism: Real-time RT-PCR of 92 genes in the tumour is matched against a reference database of known tumour types to give a molecular diagnosis of where the cancer started.

## Sources

- Hologic: CancerTYPE ID: https://www.hologic.com/hologic-products/tests/cancertype-id
- CMS article A53101: Billing and Coding: MolDX: bioTheranostics Cancer TYPE ID Update: https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/view/article.aspx?articleid=53101

## Connected records

- cancers: [Cancer of unknown primary (CUP)](https://onco.cc/cancers/cancer-of-unknown-primary/)
- technologies: [Gene-expression prognostic assays](https://onco.cc/technologies/gene-expression-prognostic-assays/), [RNA sequencing & expression profiling](https://onco.cc/technologies/rna-seq/)
- companies: [Hologic](https://onco.cc/companies/hologic/)
- key papers: [Multisite validation study to determine performance characteristics of a 92-gene molecular cancer classifier](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-kerr-92-gene-cancer-classifier-clin-cancer-res-2012/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/cancertype-id.json