Drs. Ben Solomon, Leora Horn, & Jack West assess the utility and limitations of "liquid biopsies", serum-based testing for molecular marker testing in lung cancer.

Liquid biopsies (also called serum testing) is a practice already approved in Europe for EGFR lung cancer patients. Drawing blood to test for acquired resistance is easier and quicker than needle biopsies. How long until it is standard practice in the US?

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Acquired Resistance Forum Video #4: The first three speakers at the Acquired Resistance in Lung Cancer Patient Forum sat for a moderated Q&A with Dr. Jack West. 

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Acquired Resistance Forum Video #3: Dr. Lecia Sequist of Massachusetts General Hospital detailed why doctors started doing repeat biopsies for patients receiving targeted therapies and how they help patients and doctors determine next steps in treatment.

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Here's a brief video just discussing the rationale for why a systemic treatment like chemotherapy is recommended not only as the cornerstone of treatment for advanced lung cancers, which makes intuitive sense, but also for the majority of patients with earlier stages of lung cancer as well.

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I hope it's helpful.

Welcome back. This is the second part of a discussion of the potential value of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in cancer management. Please see the prior post for a general introduction to the concept of CTCs and how they have been studied in various cancers. We'll now turn to research on CTCs in the setting of lung cancer.

Mrs. M was a 46 year-old woman who, despite having never smoked, was diagnosed with metastatic adenocarcinoma of the lung. She had a nice initial response to chemotherapy, and when she eventually progressed, she was treated with Iressa (an EGFR inhibitor similar to Tarceva which is no longer available in the US). To both her and her doctor’s delight, she had near resolution of her lung mass and most of her liver lesions after 2 months on Iressa. Unfortunately, after remaining stable for 10 months, her restaging CT scan showed one lesion in the liver was growing.