WCLC Sept 2021 | Clinical applications of liquid biopsy in NSCLC

Laura Bonanno, MD, Istituto Oncologico Veneto, Padova, Italy, comments on clinical applications of dynamic liquid biopsy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), highlighting their impact on NSCLC management. Liquid biopsy can be used to explore the mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapy and identify alternative therapies a patient may benefit from. An ongoing study is currently investigating those mechanisms in patients receiving osimertinib by taking liquid biopsies at baseline and at the moment of progression, and by performing next-generation sequencing (NGS) both in tissue and in plasma. Moreover, liquid biopsy can be used to identify biomarkers that can predict response to immunotherapy, which is currently one of the biggest challenges in the management of NSCLC. Dr Bonanno explains that due to the complex interactions between the host, the tumor and the tumor microenvironment, it is necessary to study multiple biomarkers simultaneously and monitor changes in the tumor induced by a particular treatment. This interview took place at the World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) 2021.