Landmark ctDNA Testing Offers an Early Window Into Immunotherapy Response in NSCLC

Radiographic imaging remains the standard for tracking how patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), but it can be slow to reflect what's actually happening biologically. A new prospective study from Johns Hopkins University, published in Clinical Cancer Research, proposes an alternative: a single "landmark" circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) measurement taken 3 to 9 weeks after starting immunotherapy.¹

Valsamo “Elsa” Anagnostou, MD, PhD, the Alex Grass professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, led the research and discussed the findings and their implications for immunotherapy monitoring. Anagnostou also serves as the co-director of the Upper Aerodigestive Malignancies and Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics Programs, director of the Thoracic Oncology Biorepository, leader of Precision Oncology Analytics and co-leader of the Molecular Tumor Board and the Thoracic Oncology Precision Medicine Center of Excellence at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.

"It's really important for us to have a molecular, dynamic, rapid readout of therapy response for patients with metastatic cancer, so that we can optimize therapy," Anagnostou told Targeted Oncology^TM in an interview.