Liquid Biopsy Assists with Tumor Treatment Response Monitoring

Non-invasive “liquid biopsies” such as blood tests are growing in use as they help overcome problems of inherent tumor heterogeneity of cancer cells, while providing previously unavailable insight into drug-resistance. They are essential in tracking and monitoring an otherwise intractable disease.

Due to their non-invasive nature, liquid biopsies can be less expensive than surgically obtained tissue biopsies. Liquid biopsies are more comfortable for patients, which is especially important given the stress that cancer and associated treatments already place on patients.

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) are small DNA fragments shed by the tumor. Tumor genes may mutate over time, either as the cancer grows, or the treatment suppresses the cancer and ctDNA gives an accurate, real-time picture of these cancer mutations. Being able to detect the smallest signals and trends from the ctDNA biomarker throughout the cancer management process offers timely insight and may yield information into the most effective treatment regimens tailored to the patient’s specific cancer genomic profile.

CellMax-LBx liquid biopsy is a cancer blood test, which analyzes circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). The assay provides oncologists with a valuable tool in managing their patients’ cancer treatments, monitoring treatment response, and assessing the risk of recurrence. The non-invasive blood test allows for greater testing frequency for “real-time” monitoring. CellMax-LBx is intended as a supplement to a tissue biopsy and as an ideal alternative when tissue biopsy is not possible. The test profiles 73 genes from circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), to identify and assess actionable genomic alterations using CellMax Life’s proprietary single-molecule-sequencing SMSEQ platform, which has a greater than 99.999% specificity and an analytical detection limit or sensitivity of 0.1%.

Ruey-Kuen Hsieh, MD, an Oncologist and Senior Attending Physician, said, “CellMax-LBx Liquid Biopsy provides a systemic gene analysis to help oncologists identify optimal targeted cancer treatments with fewer side-effects, either as a supplement to tissue biopsy, or when tissue-biopsy is not possible. Additionally, since this test requires only a routine blood draw, it enables us to track our patients’ response to treatment in real-time, as well as monitor them more frequently to warn of cancer recurrence as early as possible.”