Dr. Jackman on Benefits of Liquid Biopsies in Lung Cancer

David M. Jackman, MD, medical director of Clinical Pathways, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, assistant professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses the benefits of liquid biopsies for patients with lung cancer.

One of the things that makes liquid biopsies exciting is the ability to test patients whose tumor tissue was inadequate for other testing, Jackman explains. Patients who either had insufficient biopsies or were too sick to undergo standard biopsies now have a means to be tested.

According to Jackman, another exciting area is the ability to test in the setting of resistance. Patients with EGFR mutations may now have developed resistance in some but not all of their disease. A liquid biopsy can potentially capture things that a needle biopsy might otherwise not.