Making liquid biopsy a reality for patients

Debora Bonvissuto, Scientific Communication Director, Eurofins Genoma, bonvissuto@laboratoriogenoma.it 

Patients with advanced cancer can have in general a poor prognosis, however, for many patients whose tumours harbour certain specific molecular alterations, targeted therapy and/or immunotherapy provide significant improvement in survival and quality of life. Accordingly, patients with advanced cancer in which these targetable molecular alterations typically occur, should receive the molecular testing required to identify them, and based on the outcome, should receive appropriate personalised treatments.

In 2019, Eurofins Genoma together with one of their pharma customers recruited specialists in the fields of oncology, diagnosis, and treatment of breast cancer, to start a joint working group to systematically assess the evidence supporting the clinical utility of molecular analysis on breast cancer patients. The NGBreast project recruited 80 specialists from every Italian region to learn the best clinical practice in terms of which breast cancer patients and samples should be tested, which genes should be analysed, and how these tests should be designed, validated, and performed. The recruited specialists were trained in small classes. The whole project included four educational meetings with the final aim of learning how to best manage liquid biopsy in profiling breast cancer patients. After the training sessions, 1,500 liquid biopsies and 500 tissue profiling tests were made available to the specialists who attended the training. Both tests were performed using NGS and are part of the OnconextTM product range already commercialised by Eurofins Genoma. A tailor-made online portal was developed to support the specialists participating in the NGBreast project, providing access to information and training material, as well as facilitating easy ordering of the different tests.

This kind of approach is the first of its kind in trying to make liquid biopsy a reality in daily clinical practice. Due to the success of the 2019 edition, the NGBreast project will continue in 2020 with new class trainings, educational meetings, and on-the-job workshops.

For more information visit: www.onconext.it/en/onconext-liquid/; www.ngbreast.it/