Illumina Adds IBM Watson To DNA Test For Cancer Patients

Illumina and IBM announced that they would be bundling IBM's Watson Genomics product with Illumina's TruSight Tumor 170, a tool used to help match very sick cancer patients with drugs that might help them. The move is the latest effort by DNA sequencing companies to try to get doctors outside major cancer centers like Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York or M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to try to scan patients' DNA. The idea is that the DNA test results can be used to help patients who don't have any options find medicines–either approved or experimental–that might help them. So far, this is considered standard practice for late-stage non-small cell lung cancer, but not for cancers in general. Illumina says the sale of DNA sequencing machines for use in cancer represents about 10% of its annual sales, or about $240 million.