A new study shows the cost-effectiveness of MDxHealth’s prostate cancer test. The Irvine, CA-based company’s SelectMDx is a liquid biopsy test that helps predict the likelihood that clinically significant prostate cancer will be found by a biopsy.

The MDxHealth study was published in The Journal of Urology, led by researchers at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and was designed to elucidate the cost-effectiveness of SelectMDx in a population of U.S. men with elevated PSA, a marker of prostate cancer risk.

Researchers analyzed the impact of utilizing the non-invasive diagnostic test prior to prostate biopsy. The primary objective was to characterize changes in health outcomes, measured in quality-adjusted life years, and a secondary objective was evaluating healthcare costs.

The researchers found that incorporating SelectMDx resulted in an average gain of 0.045 life years, or about 16 days, in full health gained at a cost-savings of $1,694 for each patient undergoing biopsy. Extrapolating these data to a conservative estimate of 311,879 patients per year undergoing biopsy resulted in 14,035 life years in full health gained with an annual cost saving of more than $500 million for each cohort.

"This study demonstrated that routine use of SelectMDx to guide biopsy decision-making improves health outcomes and lowers healthcare costs associated with prostate cancer risk assessment in a population of U.S. men," Dr. Matthew Resnick from the departments of Urologic Surgery and Health Policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, said in a release. "We believe that this strategy improves the value of conventional risk assessment strategies through improvements in both quality and cost, the numerator and denominator of the health care value equation."

Liquid biopsy has been an extremely hot space. From single financing rounds that stretch past $100 million to increased M&A activity the market has had tremendous movement.

MDxHealth has been relatively quiet on the M&A front but spent about $8.8 million in 2015 to acquire NovioGendix. From the acquisition MDxHealth was able to broaden its prostate health liquid biopsy offerings.