Liquid biopsies can match non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients to life-prolonging targeted therapy

CONTEXT:  Liquid biopsies can match non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients to life-prolonging targeted therapy and have prognostic importance. Targeted therapy has transformed the treatment landscape of NSCLC and fundamentally made it possible, by next-generation sequencing of tissue, to match patients to therapies that prolong overall survival (OS).  To understand the relationships across circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), matched therapy, and OS, Dr Jee and colleagues conducted a large, prospective cohort study for 4 years that included 1002 patients with NSCLC.  Commenting on the findings of the study Dr Jee explained “The presence of ctDNA is a poor prognostic sign.  If you sequence the ctDNA and match it to targeted therapy, that can be life-prolonging.”.  Future research will include an additional cohort fully enrolled in a community oncology setting in Sydney, Australia, for real-world validation.

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1. “To understand the relationships across circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), matched therapy, and OS, Dr Jee and colleagues conducted a large, prospective cohort study for 4 years that included 1002 patients with NSCLC who were a median age of 68 years (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01775072).” 

2. “Targeted therapy has transformed the treatment landscape of NSCLC and fundamentally made it possible, by next-generation sequencing of tissue, to match patients to therapies that prolong overall survival (OS).” 

3. “Early studies have found that patients can be matched to treatment through plasma sequencing, and patients have a radiographic initial response,” stated Justin Jee, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, New York, during the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.” 

4. ““Our large, prospective cohort shows 22% of patients matched to targeted therapy by ctDNA, and an additional 13% were matched by tissue only,” Dr Jee said in closing.” 

5. “Studies using ctDNA to match targeted therapy should account for lower baseline survival.”” 

Source URL: https://www.cancertherapyadvisor.com/home/news/conference-coverage/asco-2021/asco-2021-lung-cancer-in-depth/lung-cancer-liquid-biopsy-therapy-improves-survival-risk/