Abstract

Saliva Liquid Biopsy (sLB)

David Wong, Director, University of California Los Angeles

Liquid biopsy is a rapidly emerging field to address this unmet clinical need as diagnostics based on cell-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) can be a surrogate for the entire tumor genome. The use of ctDNA via liquid biopsy will facilitate analysis of tumor genomics that is urgently needed for molecular targeted therapy. Currently, most targeted approaches are based on PCR and/or next generation sequencing (NGS) for liquid biopsy applications with performance concordance in the 70-80% range with biopsy-based genotyping.  “Electric Field Induced Release and Measurement (EFIRM)” is an emerging liquid biopsy technology that provides the most accurate detection that can assist clinical treatment decisions for the most common subtype of lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) that can extend the disease progress free survival period of these patients. EFIRM can detection ctDNA at single copy level whereas ddPCR detects ctDNA a minimum of 10 copy number. In addition EFIRM requires only 40 µl of sample volume, no sample processing, reaction time is 15min and can be performed at the point-of-care or high throughput reference lab using plasma or saliva. In two blinded independent clinical studies, EFIRM detects actionable EGFR mutations in NSCLC patients with >95% concordance with biopsy-based genotyping. EFIRM is minimally/ non-invasive detecting the most common EGFR gene mutations that are treatable with TKI such as Gefitinib or Erlotinib to effectively extend the progression free survival of lung cancer patients.