And if a simple blood test could detect cancers ? This idea is not taken from a science fiction book but from medical research. The degradation of cells, healthy or tumorous, in the body is a natural process which allows strands of DNA to circulate in the blood flow. The principle of liquid biopsy is to identify these markers from cancer cells in the blood. A hopeful approach in patient monitoring.
Currently, cancer diagnosis in the broad sense is based on symptomatology, imaging as well as tissue biopsy. This determines the diagnosis to be made according to the molecular characteristics of the tumor. Surgical proceduresradiological, or endoscopic invasive which are sometimes painful. Liquid biopsy could replace these follow-up procedures in the future. This is the wish of many researchers.
“Liquid biopsy is a promising alternative when traditional, repeated biopsies are complex to perform, particularly in fragile or elderly patients”
“To this day, liquid biopsy is a promising alternative when traditional, repeated biopsies are complex to perform, particularly in fragile or elderly patients; or when the tumor, lung or bone For example, is difficult to reach and analyzable”, underlines in a press release in 2017, Professor Benjamin Besse, head of the Thoracic Pathology committee at the Gustave Roussy Institute.
Liquid biopsy in lung cancer
This cutting-edge cancer center in France was the first to use this diagnostic technique. “Gustave Roussy is the first center to formalize a consultation based on a liquid biopsy for molecular research on circulating DNA in patients with lung cancer”, specifies in the press release Dr Laura Mezquita, oncologist in Thoracic Pathology. A medical feat presented at the ASCO American Cancer Congress in 2017.
In September 2023, the Gustave Roussy Institute set up a genomic profiling laboratory cancers in partnership with the company Roche France. A little over 1,300 analyzes have been carried out since the opening and scientists plan to carry out 6,000 by the end of the year.
Shorter deadlines
A technique that could ultimately shorten current diagnostic times. The THU Reveal program is currently piloting four projects with the Cancer Institute. His ambition: predict relapse and monitoring using liquid biopsy of patients with non-small cell lung cancers.
A program based on three axes : the first aims to evaluate and define the next generation of liquid biopsy for measure accurately residual disease after surgery and/or radiotherapy. The second aims to predict sensitivity or resistance to immunotherapy thanks to blood biological markers, and the last one goes through the development and validation of a test Circulating DNA for monitoring patients with metastatic disease.
Is this the end of solid biopsies?
“While liquid biopsies have considerable benefits, conventional biopsies remain essential to make the initial diagnosis of cancer, define the stage, study the tumor environment. Additionally, the DNA of certain tumors, particularly brain tumors, are not found in sufficient quantities to be detectable in the blood. Their genetic mutations still remain undetectable by liquid biopsy,” specifies the Gustave Roussy Institute in a press release.
