ASCO 2022 | Accelerating lung cancer diagnoses through liquid biopsy

Miguel Garcia-Pardo, MD, Princess Margaret Cancer Center, Toronto, Canada, discusses findings from an investigation into accelerating lung cancer diagnosis through liquid biopsy. Patients with radiologic evidence of advanced lung cancer underwent circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing a next-generation sequencing (NGS) assay targeting 37 genes. Standard tissue testing was carried out via comprehensive NGS. The primary endpoint was time to treatment in stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) compared to a historical cohort of patients (2018-9). Secondary endpoints included actionable targets identified in plasma, % of patients starting targeted therapy based on liquid biopsy, and result turnaround time. 60 patients were enrolled, 73% with NSCLC, 12% with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), 10% with non-lung pathology and 5% declined tissue biopsy. 11% of patients with NSCLC had early-stage disease and underwent curative therapy. 79% of patients stage IV underwent systemic treatment. Median turnaround time was 7 days from plasma blood drawing to reporting and 26 days for tissue molecular testing, with a high concordance rate of 70% between plasma and tissue testing. Liquid biopsy identified actional alterations in 3 patients not identified by plasma tissue. In conclusion, liquid biopsy for diagnosing patients with suspected NSCLC lead to faster molecular results and shorter treatment time in comparison to tissue testing alone. This interview took place at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2022 Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL.