Screening for therapeutic targets is standard of care in the management of advanced non-small cell lung cancer. However, most molecular assays utilize tumor tissue, which may not always be available. “Liquid biopsies” are plasma-based next generation sequencing (NGS) assays that use circulating tumor DNA to identify relevant targets. To compare the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of a plasma-based NGS assay to solid-tumor-based NGS we retrospectively analyzed sequencing results of 100 sequential patients with lung adenocarcinoma at our institution who had received concurrent testing with both a solid-tissue-based NGS assay and a commercially available plasma-based NGS assay. Patients represented both new diagnoses (79%) and disease progression on treatment (21%); the majority (83%) had stage IV disease. Tissue-NGS identified 74 clinically relevant mutations, including 52 therapeutic targets, a sensitivity of 94.8%, while plasma-NGS identified 41 clinically relevant mutations, a ..... READ ARTICLE
Modern Pathology DOI:10.1038/s41379-021-00880-0
Authors: Lawrence Hsu Lin, Douglas H. R. Allison, Yang Feng, George Jour, Kyung Park, Fang Zhou, Andre L. Moreira, Guomiao Shen, Xiaojun Feng, Joshua Sabari, Vamsidhar Velcheti, Matija Snuderl, Paolo Cotzia