With faster and equally accurate results, liquid biopsy may be an option for identifying guideline-recommended targeted therapies for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to findings presented at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA. 

Using samples from 282 patients, researchers at 28 North American cancer centers performed a prospective, multicenter clinical trial to compare physician-determined conventional tissue assessment to a 73-gene next-generation sequencing panel to assess cfDNA in blood. Both methods were intended to detect G7 biomarkers (EGFR, ALK, ROS1, BRAF, RET, MET, and ERBB2). 

Tissue biopsies found mutations in 21.3% of the samples, whereas the liquid biopsies found them in 27.3%. Processing time for blood-based biopsy was about a week faster than for tissue biopsy.