PROSCA/BLADDR 2023 | Liquid biopsy vs tissue biopsy in oncology

Bram De Laere, PhD, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium, highlights the advantages of liquid biopsies over tissue biopsies, emphasizing their complementary nature. Liquid biopsies offer a less invasive and more universally feasible sample collection method through peripheral blood draws, ensuring faster and less painful procedures with minimal risk. Concordance studies reveal that liquid biopsies provide representative results comparable to tissue biopsies, while offering additional insights into tumor biology due to spatial heterogeneity. Liquid biopsies capture an average molecular fingerprint of the overall tumor burden, surpassing the limitations of single-site metastasis biopsies. Furthermore, the ease of repetitive sampling allows for longitudinal monitoring of clonal dynamics during treatment transitions, providing valuable information for personalized cancer care. De Laere underscores the practical challenges of obtaining repetitive tissue biopsies in clinical practice. This interview took place at the PROSCA/BLADDR 2023 conference in Malaga, Spain.

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