BTOG 2022 Summer Meeting | ctDNA-NGS versus routine tissue testing in patients with advanced NSCLC

Sanjay Popat, PhD, MBBS, FRCP, Royal Marsden NHSFT/BTOG Steering Committee, UK, discusses an investigation into the comparison of upfront cell-free-DNA next generation sequencing (cfDNA-NGS) clinical utility against routine tissue testing in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). ctDNA was shown to bring many advances to the treatment paradigm, including the identification of more tier one actionable variants. Although it missed some variants that tissue testing managed to identify, tissue testing also missed variants identifiable via ctDNA. Importantly, ctDNA using a commercial platform gave a faster readout of genotype than tissue testing. Prof. Popat concludes that ctDNA in parallel to tissue testing is complementary and should be considered. This interview took place at the BTOG 2022 Summer Meeting congress in London.