Exact Sciences reported after the close of the market recently that its third quarter revenues rose 85 percent year over year, thanks to an 89 percent increase in testing volumes for its Cologuard colorectal cancer screening test.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, the Madison, Wisconsin-based molecular diagnostics company reported revenues of $218.8 million, up from $118.3 million a year earlier, and beating the average Wall Street analyst estimate of $216.1 million.

The number of people screened with Cologuard during the quarter rose to 456,000. The company said nearly 12,000 healthcare providers ordered their first Cologuard test during Q3, and more than 185,000 clinicians have ordered the test since it was launched. Including the expansion of Cologuard's label to include average-risk Americans ages 45 to 49, the test's estimated market share has risen to 5.2 percent, Exact said.

The average Cologuard recognized revenue per test decreased by $13 to $479 in Q3, and the average cost per test to the company fell by $10 to $114.

"The Exact Sciences team delivered another strong quarter and most importantly, has screened more than 3 million people with Cologuard over the last five years," Exact Chairman and CEO Kevin Conroy said in a statement. "The team made significant progress enhancing our internal infrastructure with the opening of our new lab and implementation of Epic's best-in-class electronic health record system. The foundation we've built for Cologuard and our planned combination with Genomic Health position Exact Sciences to be the cancer diagnostics leader for years to come."

Exact's Q3 net loss narrowed to $40.5 million, or $.31 per share, from a net loss of $45.4 million, or $.37 per share, in the year-ago period. Analysts had expected a loss of $.41 per share.

The company's R&D costs for the quarter rose 98 percent to $34.9 million from $17.6 million in Q3 2018, and its SG&A expenses rose 50 percent to $166.8 million from $111.5 million.

Exact ended the quarter with $1.03 billion in cash and cash equivalents, and $126.2 million in marketable securities.

For full-year 2019, Exact expects revenues of $802 million to $810 million. This doesn't include the impact of the company's pending merger with Genomic Health. On average, analysts expect revenues of $810.9 million for the year.

In a separate announcement, Exact said new research from its collaboration with the Mayo Clinic revealed new methylation and protein biomarkers that enable the detection of colorectal cancer and advanced adenomas with high accuracy. The study is part of an effort to increase the specificity of Cologuard while maintaining its sensitivity.

The new markers were tested alongside the current Cologuard markers on 725 stool samples, including 117 colorectal cancers, 120 advanced adenomas, 161 non-advanced adenomas, and 327 controls. The results showed that the new markers were able to identify colorectal cancers with 92 percent sensitivity compared to 88 percent for the current markers, and were able to identify advanced adenomas with 65 percent sensitivity, compared to the current 53 percent sensitivity. The new markers also maintained Cologuard's 92 percent specificity, the company said.

The company has also initiated a 10,000-patient prospective study to validate the performance of the enhanced test.

Exact's shares fell nearly 13 percent to $79 in after-market trading on the Nasdaq.