OncQuest Laboratories Ltd, a pioneer and the leader in the Indian Oncology clinical testing market, has expanded its test-range covering grey areas of cancer biology. These tests will include a variety of innovative tools for screening, diagnosis and prognostication of infectious agents including HIV (Kaposi's Sarcoma) & Hepatitis (Hepatocellular Carcinoma).

The five new tests include Real Time Qualitative PCR for HIV, Hepatitis B & Hepatitis C Real Time Quantitative PCR for HIV, Hepatitis B & Hepatitis C, Elisa for HIV, Hepatitis B & Hepatitis C, Elisa for Tumour Markers i.e. CA19.9, CA-125, CA-15.3, CEA, AFP, PSA and Allele specific PCR for K- ras & Reverse Transcriptase PCR for inversion 16.

The tests will be available at all the servicing centre of OncQuest including 45 major towns in India, Colombo and Kathmandu.

According to Aditya Burman, general manager, OncQuest Laboratories the new tests are in sync with company's plan to expand its services and it will help patients with correct diagnosis leading to right and timely treatment. "In the pilot phase of these tests, we have decided to collect samples from the patients' doorstep in metro cities."

Vivek Trikha, head, Diagnostics, OncQuest Laboratories said, "Based on our long existence in the niche space, we understand the need for an extensive diagnosis in these critical areas. There have been un-touched grey areas that are a reason of concern for the mankind. These tests are result of extensive research done at our in-house laboratory and are an endeavour to promise accuracy in diagnosis of infectious diseases, which are causative agents of cancer. Our new tests will be a useful resource for the clinicians, helping them make critical decisions on therapeutic front. They will be able to monitor drug response in a better way and thus, modify the therapy based on test result."

Further, these news tests will benefit the clinicians since they will be able to assess disease severity and predict the line of treatment accordingly to make critical decisions. Using these new tests, clinicians can measure minimal residual disease (MRD) which is a residual after the patients have been on treatment and ascertain the relapse.

The company's advanced clinical and research laboratory is fully equipped with molecular technologies allowing for rapid advancement in the complex field of theranostics, pharmacogenomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and biomarker studies.