Scientists at the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), located at the German Center for Cancer Research (DKFZ), the National Center for Tumor Diseases and the Thoraxklinik in Heidelberg used liquid biopsies to detect mutations in circulating cell free DNA (cfDNA) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, which may provide a promising tool for early indication of therapy response and tumor progression in lung cancer patients.
In this joint project serial liquid biopsies from sixteen NSCLC patients treated with tyrosin kinase inhibitor (TKI) were investigated. The results show that the liquid biopsy approach is sufficiently sensitive to detect changes in the tumor in real time. With early and frequent sampling this method promises to identify mutations in cfDNA prior to clinically detectable disease progression.
Read more...(News in German)
Riediger AL, Dietz S, Schirmer U, Meister M, Heinzmann-Groth I, Schneider M, Muley T, Thomas M, Sültmann H. Mutation analysis of circulating plasma DNA to determine response to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy of lung adenocarcinoma patients. Sci Rep. 2016 Sep 19;6:33505. doi: 10.1038/srep33505.
Source: German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) (in German)
