Dr. Levy on the Current State of Liquid Biopsies Across Tumor Types

Benjamin P. Levy, MD, assistant professor of oncology and clinical director of Medical Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, discusses the current state of liquid biopsies across tumor types.

Initially, liquid biopsies were performed when patients with non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) developed resistance to EGFR-targeted therapies. More recently, data sets have shown that liquid biopsies can be used in addition to tissue biopsies in all patients with advanced NSCLC, says Levy.

In gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies and breast cancer, liquid biopsies are being evaluated in the advanced setting as well as in the post-curative intent setting to detect minimal residual disease. However, these tests have shown limited utility, says Levy. The hope is that their application in lung cancer can be extrapolated to breast cancer and GI malignancies, concludes Levy.