Novel Liquid Biopsy Technology to Advance Cancer Diagnostics

Liquid biopsies are increasingly replacing tissue biopsies in cancer care, offering a faster, minimally invasive way to assess tumor genetics from blood samples. However, current liquid biopsy methods often force clinicians to compromise between sensitivity, variant coverage, cost, and workflow complexity. Some tests detect rare mutations but cover only a few known targets, while others offer broad coverage but require time-consuming, error-prone laboratory processes. Now, a newly developed sequencing-based approach aims to overcome these trade-offs by delivering high sensitivity, broad mutation detection, and a streamlined workflow suitable for routine clinical use.

In a new study, a team of researchers benchmarked the new Bridge Capture method developed by Genomill Health (Turku, Finland) against two widely used commercial liquid biopsy assays: Archer LIQUIDPlex and Illumina AmpliSeq CHPv2. Bridge Capture is a targeted next-generation sequencing approach designed for liquid biopsy applications, including cancer diagnostics and disease monitoring. Bridge Capture was designed to support flexible panel sizes without altering the core workflow, enabling laboratories to use the same method for both focused hotspot testing and larger, more comprehensive panels as clinical needs evolve.

Image: The liquid biopsy technology enables high-sensitivity cancer mutation detection (Photo courtesy of 123RF)

The researchers assessed Bridge Capture using contrived colorectal cancer samples designed to mimic circulating tumor DNA across a wide range of variant allele frequencies. Their analysis showed strong concordance between Bridge Capture and both commercial assays, while consistently detecting the lowest variant allele frequencies among the tested methods. Importantly, Bridge Capture maintained near-identical performance even when sequencing depth was reduced tenfold, demonstrating efficient use of sequencing capacity. Interlaboratory testing and comparisons between manual and automated workflows confirmed high reproducibility and robustness. The method is designed to efficiently capture target regions, enabling reliable detection of rare mutations without requiring ultra-deep sequencing. This approach reduces turnaround time, lowers costs, and minimizes technical complexity compared with existing methods.

The findings, published in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, suggest that Bridge Capture could support high-sensitivity liquid biopsy testing in both centralized and decentralized clinical laboratories. Its simple, scalable workflow makes it suitable for routine cancer diagnostics, treatment selection, and longitudinal disease monitoring. As cancer testing increasingly moves closer to patients, the ability to run cost-effective, reliable assays on low- to mid-throughput instruments could expand access to advanced molecular diagnostics. The research team plans to further scale the method to larger panels and explore applications such as early cancer detection.

“We were particularly impressed with how well Bridge Capture performed against established commercial technologies, especially its ability to detect very low variant allele frequencies,” said Manu Tamminen, PhD, CEO of Genomill Health. “As the method scales to larger panels while keeping a simple workflow, we see strong potential for broader applications, including early cancer detection.”

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