A Multi-Center, Real-Life Experience on Liquid Biopsy Practice for EGFR Testing in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Patients

• Published in: Diagnostics (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 10; p. 765
• Main Authors: Cortiula, Francesco, Pasello, Giulia, Follador, Alessandro, Nardo, Giorgia, Polo, Valentina, Scquizzato, Elisa, Del Conte, Alessandro, Miorin, Marta, Giovanis, Petros, D’Urso, Alessandra, Girlando, Salvator, Settanni, Giulio, Picece, Vincenzo, Veccia, Antonello, Corvaja, Carla, Indraccolo, Stefano, De Maglio, Giovanna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 28.09.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Biopsy; EGFR testing practice; liquid biopsy; Lung cancer; Mutation; Patients; Plasma; T790M; Italy
• ISSN: 2075-4418; 2075-4418
• DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics10100765

Background: circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a source of tumor genetic material for EGFR testing in NSCLC. Real-word data about liquid biopsy (LB) clinical practice are lacking. The aim of the study was to describe the LB practice for EGFR detection in North Eastern Italy. Methods: we conducted a multi-regional survey on ctDNA testing practices in lung cancer patients. Results: Median time from blood collection to plasma separation was 50 min (20–120 min), median time from plasma extraction to ctDNA analysis was 24 h (30 min–5 days) and median turnaround time was 24 h (6 h–5 days). Four hundred and seventy five patients and 654 samples were tested. One hundred and ninety-two patients were tested at diagnosis, with 16% EGFR mutation rate. Among the 283 patients tested at disease progression, 35% were T790M+. Main differences in LB results between 2017 and 2018 were the number of LBs performed for each patient at disease progression (2.88 vs. 1.2, respectively) and the percentage of T790M+ patients (61% vs. 26%).