Dr. Beltran on the Utility of Liquid Biopsies Versus Tissue Biopsies in CRPC-NE

Himisha Beltran, MD, associate professor of medicine, Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, Division of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Harvard Medical School, and physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the utility of liquid biopsies versus tissues biopsies in castration-resistant neuroendocrine prostate cancer (CRPC-NE).

An abstract presented at the 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium demonstrated a high concordance between circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in plasma-based testing and tissue-based testing with regard to identifying common alterations in prostate cancer, says Beltran.

To look beyond common mutations, whole-exome sequencing across the genome was compared between sample types, says Beltran. Results showed that a higher genomic similarity between plasma and tissue samples was noted in the CRPC-NE subgroup compared with traditional CRPC, explains Beltran.

This suggests that there is less disease heterogeneity in men with CRPC-NE. Moreover, this complements other data that suggest as patients progress to more advanced disease, there is likely clonal selection of a resistant clone, concludes Beltran.