Liquid Biopsies

Prostate Cancer

According to results from a retrospective study published in the <em>Journal of Clinical Oncology, </em>low-coverage genome-wide sequencing of cell-free DNA from plasma is capable of profiling cancer genomes from blood and predicting survival outcomes for patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

A novel circulating tumor cell assay has demonstrated a high accuracy of up to 88% for detecting early-stage colorectal cancer, according to the results of a prospective study from Taiwan released ahead of a presentation at the 2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, California. The study marks the first to show a high sensitivity for detecting precancerous lesions, as prior studies tended to identify later-stage CRCs.

According to a retrospective analysis of a randomized study presented at the 2017 ESMO Congress, a liquid biopsy&nbsp;that measures tumor mutational burden showed promise for predicting benefit in patients with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer treated with a checkpoint inhibitor.&nbsp;

A new, high-intensity genomic sequencing approach for circulating tumor DNA uncovered at least 1 genetic change in both the tumor DNA and the blood of 89% of patients, demonstrating a high rate of concordance between 2 approaches for detecting molecular aberrations, according to a study presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Emil Christensen, PhD candidate, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, discusses a liquid biopsy analysis of <em>FGFR3</em> and <em>PIK3CA</em> hotspot mutations for disease surveillance in bladder cancer.

The optimal use of emerging assays that characterize molecular abnormalities from plasma in late-stage non-small cell lung cancer will be to augment tissue biopsies at initial diagnosis and to evaluate patients for second- and third-line therapies.

Nicola Normanno, MD, chief of the Cell Biology and Biotherapy Unit, INT-Fondazione Pascale, Naples, Italy, discusses the recent data showing that plasma can act as a potential alternative to EGFR mutation analysis in the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer, as well as the current demands for the use of liquid biopsies in this type of treatment.

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) detection has 48% sensitivity and 100% specificity in the prediction of radiologic recurrence at 36 months in postoperative patients with stage II colon cancer.

Plasma-based genetic testing can effectively be used to determine whether a tissue biopsy is necessary for EGFR mutation analysis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Heather A. Wakelee, MD, discusses a study utilizing liquid biopsies in patients with non-small cell lung cancer who harbor EGFR mutations.