Liquid Biopsies

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.

The liquid biopsy testing method from a large genomic analysis of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in blood samples from more than 15,000 patients, was found to be closely correlated with mutations described in databases, and often from tumor biopsies as well, according to research presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Resistance to androgen receptor therapies in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) has historically posed a challenge to clinicians. Now, a new blood test that analyzes circulating tumor cells (CTCs) could help overcoming these hurdles.

The rising overall risk of all sizes of malignant thyroid cancer has made clinicians question whether or not sub-centimeter thyroid nodules should also be biopsied.

The presence of circulating tumor DNA in serum could predict microscopic vascular invasion of the portal vein and extrahepatic metastasis following surgery for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Gordon B. Mills, MD, PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses assay of the genome in order to further measure DNA and RNA.

An assay that measures circulating tumor (ct) DNA in the urine can detect the early acquisition of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) resistance mutations in patients with metastatic lung adenocarcinoma.

Veena Singh, MD, senior vice president and senior medical director, Biocept, Inc., discusses the clinical validation and utility of a liquid biopsy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and ctDNA to analyze EGFR, ALK and ROS status.

Low-frequency KRAS mutations are present in urine cell-free DNA in about 80% of patients with advanced cancers and BRAF V600E mutations.

Scott Eggener, MD, associate professor of surgery, co-director, Prostate Cancer Program, director, Transitional and Outcomes Research, Section of Urology, The University of Chicago Medicine, discusses screening for prostate cancer.

Two different types of liquid biopsies—plasma and urine—can detect the number of copies of the KRAS mutation in circulating DNA in patients with colorectal cancer who have resectable liver metastases with near 100% concordance with tissue biopsies, according to a pilot study presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

The availability of mutation-specific treatments and an increasing understanding of potential resistance mechanisms have provided immense opportunities for research and development of new therapies in lung cancer.

Abnormal driver mutations contribute to tumor progression and have been prime targets for many therapeutic studies in oncology; however, researchers are focusing more and more on the less-studied passenger mutations and their role in tumor progression.

The definition of liquid biopsy has expanded to include the collection of cfDNA, along with various species of cell-free RNA and exosomes, all of which are capable of providing information on the disease status of cancer patients.

Comparable test results were shown with both urine and plasma molecular assays in a blinded, retrospective study.

In many cases, prostate cancer grows slowly and causes few symptoms; thus, many men remain unaware that they have the disease.

During a retrospective study of 182 patients with nonresectable pancreatic cancer, a negative association was found between baseline circulating tumor (ct)DNA KRAS counts in plasma and overall survival (OS), which indicates that patients with lower KRAS burden in ctDNA survive longer.