Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA) and GenPath Oncology Announce Diagnostic Laboratory Partnership to Benefit Nearly a Quarter Million NJ Cancer Patients

HACKENSACK, N.J. and ELMWOOD PARK, N.J., June 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Regional Cancer Care Associates LLC (RCCA), one of the nation's largest oncology physician groups, announced today it has partnered with GenPath Oncology (www.genpath.com), a business unit of BioReference Laboratories to bring advanced diagnostics to the practice's more than 230,000 cancer patients.

RCCA and GenPath have joined together to create an advanced molecular laboratory on the grounds of the John Theurer Cancer Center in Hackensack, NJ. This initiative expands the group's offered services into key diagnostic testing for their patient community. The first step in this multi-year partnership is the development of a physician-owned immunophenotyping service for hematological malignancies. In addition, GenPath will also be providing a significant amount of esoteric diagnostic testing to RCCA's network of 92 oncology physicians in 27 locations.

The partnership with GenPath will strengthen RCCA's mission to raise the standard of cancer care across the state, while remaining competitive in a changing healthcare environment where medical practices increasingly face declining reimbursements and rising administrative costs.

"We recognize that providers are forming larger practices to meet the challenges of a changing market.  BioReference continues to adapt as our clients evolve.  RCCA and BioReference both share a commitment to patient care and support scientific innovation for this purpose," said Marc D. Grodman, M.D., President and CEO of BioReference Laboratories.

"RCCA was established to offer the highest quality and most comprehensive cancer care and our partnership with BioReference expands upon that goal. Through this relationship, RCCA is well positioned to offer the most innovative cancer diagnostics," said Edward J. Licitra, M.D., Ph.D. and Board Chairman of RCCA.

RCCA is one of the nation's largest oncology physician networks.  As a group, RCCA is transforming healthcare, by providing a broad range of quality cancer services to patients while also controlling the cost of patient care through practice-management consistency, more competitive contractual rates and hospital privileges, resulting in long-term savings for payers. The new RCCA testing service, scheduled to begin in June, will focus on providing timely and clinically-relevant results for patient care in a cost effective manner.

According to Licitra, oncology is at a crossroads—increasing longevity in the population has the unintended effect of raising the incidence of cancer.  "Oncology care is advancing, becoming more specialized and therefore getting more expensive. Over time, some cancer care may become unaffordable, and that would be tragic.  We need to take steps now that allow us to modulate the growth of the cost of cancer care while maintaining quality," he explained.

GenPath, headquartered in Elmwood Park, was selected from among the largest cancer laboratories in the nation, due to its scientific expertise and longstanding relationships with many of RCCA's physicians. GenPath offers oncology providers a single source for cancer patient management, including bone marrow morphology, solid tumor diagnosis, molecular genetics for personalized medicine, and even routine clinical testing specific for cancer patients.  In addition, GenPath offers two innovative proprietary testing modalities, OnkoMatch, a tumor genotyping test that covers more than 100 possible mutations in 14 clinically targetable oncogenes, and GenArray which scans a patient's entire genome for chromosomal abnormalities, offering superior coverage over conventional methods such as FISH and cytogenetics.

About Regional Cancer Care Associates
Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA), one of the largest oncology physician networks in the US, is transforming oncology care by ensuring patients and their caregivers are an active part of the treatment team in all aspects of the management of their disease in a way that is life-enriching and respectful.

Regional Cancer Care Associates extends across New Jersey with more than 92 cancer care specialists, growing to include more than 100, and is supported by 700 employees at 27 care delivery sites, providing care to more than 20,000 new patients annually and over 230,000 existing patients. RCCA takes responsibility to ensure access to the highest quality, compassionate and cutting-edge cancer care for its patients while controlling the cost of this care. For more information visit: www.regionalcancercare.org

About GenPath
GenPath is the specialty oncology division of BioReference Laboratories, Inc. (BRLI). BRLI is a clinical laboratory offering testing, information and related services to physician offices, clinics, hospitals, employers and governmental units. We believe that we are the fourth largest full-service laboratory in the United States. BRLI offers a comprehensive list of laboratory testing services utilized by healthcare providers in the detection, diagnosis, evaluation, monitoring and treatment of diseases. BRLI is a full service clinical laboratory with a focus on esoteric testing, molecular diagnostics, anatomical pathology, women's health and genetic testing. 

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SOURCE Regional Cancer Care Associates LLC