The SafeSeq personalized liquid biopsy platform is helpful in gauging response to treatment in early-stage breast cancer patients prior to surgery, and it is especially effective when combined with imaging, Sysmex Inostics has reported.
The SafeSeq circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) platform and the SureSeq next-generation sequencing (NGS) gene panel (from Sysmex company Oxford Gene Technology) for tissue testing were both deployed in a study of 29 patients with stage II and stage III breast cancer undergoing therapy to shrink their tumors prior to surgery. The participants had human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive or triple-negative breast cancer. Results were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Advances in Liquid Biopsies meeting, held January 13-16 in Miami.
Prior to surgery, i.e., in the neoadjuvant setting, SureSeq identified driver mutations in 20 patients, and mutations were detectable in 17 using plasma samples and SafeSeq. After neoadjuvant therapy and prior to surgery, plasma samples showed a lack of ctDNA in 12 of 12 patients with a clinical complete response, and ctDNA was identified in three out of five who did not have a complete response, the company reported.
By itself, ctDNA identifies 85% of patients with a pathologic complete response, and this rate rises to 100% when combined with imaging, which suggests that blood testing may help avoid unnecessary surgeries, according to Sysmex Inostics.
