BioCentury
ARTICLE | Preclinical News

Papers describe liquid biopsy next-generation sequencing

August 18, 2017 4:38 PM UTC

At least five recently published studies have shown the utility of liquid-based biopsies in cancer detection, suggesting that liquid biopsy next-generation sequencing (NGS) could replace traditional detection methods of PCR and tumor biopsies. In addition, a new approach using RNA from platelets that interact with tumors shows promise.

In a paper published in Cancer Cell, a team including researchers from VU University Medical Center utilized "swarm intelligence" algorithms that select RNA biomarker panels from tumor-educated blood platelets (TEPs). Using the technology, known as ThromboSeq, in about 5,000 RNA molecules from over 700 patient blood samples, the researchers showed an 81% and 88% accuracy of TEP-based detection for early- and late-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), respectively. According to the paper, two authors received funding from Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) and are shareholders of Grail Inc. (Menlo Park, Calif.). Grail spokesperson Charlotte Arnold told BioCentury that the company is not pursuing development of the method. Illumina did not respond to inquiries...