White Paper: exploring the clinical utility of a comprehensive liquid biopsy (DefineMBC™) in metastatic breast cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer is primarily diagnosed by tissue biopsy, a gold-standard technique that allows accurate assessment of tumor histology and comprehensive molecular profiling of biomarkers that help inform treatment decisions. However, there are several challenges regarding tissue biopsies in accurately characterizing metastatic breast cancer (MBC). First, they often do not assess tumor heterogeneity and typically reflect the biology of only a few singular accessible lesions. Furthermore, invasiveness and cost hinder their use for monitoring cancer evolution over time. Noninvasive liquid biopsies have emerged as viable diagnostic tools that facilitate longitudinal cancer profiling. While useful, most of the currently available liquid biopsies are limited to assessing cell-free DNA (cfDNA). Consequently, they are unable to determine variations in important biomarkers of breast cancer, such as hormone receptor expression, which are critical for developing treatment plans. To overcome these limitations and to expand the scope of liquid biopsies, DefineMBC™ was developed as the first and only blood-based liquid biopsy that can assess both tumor biomarkers from circulating tumor cells (CTCs), and genetic variations from CTCs via single-cell genomics as well as from cfDNA.

Read the full White Paper here

In association with:

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oncology Central or Future Science Group.