Dr. Papadimitrakopoulou on Benefits of Liquid Biopsy Versus Standard Tissue in Lung Cancer

Vassiliki A. Papadimitrakopoulou, MD, professor of medicine, Department of Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the benefits of liquid biopsy compared with standard tissue in lung cancer.

The main benefit with liquid biopsies is how rapidly the results come back for the patient, says Papadimitrakopoulou. Secondly, with the current standard of care, tissue genotyping, there is a lot of concern over depleting a patient’s tumor tissue, she adds. As such, sequential biomarker testing may be avoided, which could lead to “under-genotyping.”

Liquid biopsies can be done once, with 1 blood specimen collected at the beginning of treatment. Therefore, this approach offers more complete genotyping for more patients, at a faster rate. These benefits were prospectively verified in the NILE study which compared liquid biopsies, cell-free DNA tumor profiling, with tumor tissue profiling. Results showed not only that liquid biopsies are equally effective in detecting guideline-recommended biomarkers compared with tissue biopsies, but they were capable of doing so at a significantly faster rate at 9 days versus 15 days, respectively.