A new tool in the fight against cancer makes its appearance in the clinical setting: the liquid biopsy

Cancer medicine is acquiring a new diagnostic and treatment monitoring tool, the Jules Bordet Institute said in a press release on Monday. This is the liquid biopsy, until then only used in cancer research projects. It is now entering the clinical routine.

A liquid biopsy is the analysis of a blood sample to detect the presence of cancer cells that have detached from the primary tumor or metastatic lesions (circulating tumor cells) or tumor DNA circulating in the blood. of a patient, explains the hospital.

Concretely, it is now possible, via a simple blood test, to detect genetic abnormalities linked to certain cancers, to follow the evolution of the disease, to easily assess the effectiveness of a treatment or to guide the choice of ‘a new treatment.

The technique is minimally invasive, simple to set up and less risky compared to solid biopsies, which consist in taking a sample directly from the tumor. It is also an effective analysis method in the event of lesions or tumors that are difficult to access via a conventional biopsy, points out the institute devoted to cancerous diseases.

Doctor Michail Ignatiadis, medical oncologist at the Jules Bordet Institute and expert in the field of liquid biopsies, wrote, with George W. Sledge Jr and Stefanie S. Jeffrey, an article in the scientific journal Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, which discusses concretely the integration of liquid biopsies into clinical routine.

“Already well integrated in the United States, Europe must now catch up with a certain delay in the face of the integration of liquid biopsies into clinical routine”, underlines Dr Ignatiadis. “It requires a clear overview of the elements to be put in place so that it can be done in an intelligent and coherent way. Liquid biopsies are a new management customization tool that will benefit both physicians and patients. This is an important step in the fight against cancer, ”he concludes.

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