Abstract

Blood-based Testing for Somatic Alterations in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Walter Koch, Vice President, Roche Molecular Systems

For cancer patients with inaccessible or unavailable tumor tissue biopsies, an unmet Medical need exists for a surrogate for tissue testing.   New ultra-sensitive PCR and NGS technologies allow analysis of tumor derived nucleic acids and cells in blood with potential applications to therapy selection for targeted therapeutics, assessment of initial therapy response, monitoring for disease progression during treatment, and identification of drug resistance mechanisms that can suggest further treatment options.  This presentation will cover clinical development of a FDA approved assay detecting EGFR mutations in plasma from NSCLC patients to highlight what is possible, what has been achieved, and what challenges remain before Liquid Biopsy applications find routine clinical use.