Small Bytes: How ctDNA Liquid Biopsies Can Detect Myeloid Malignancies & Occult Tumors

BARCELONA, Spain—Liquid biopsies are increasingly used to identify cancer progression and could also provide molecular evidence of higher risk for hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, according to findings from a study of circulating tumor DNA reported at the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer—National Cancer Institute—American Association for Cancer Research (EORTC-NCI-AACR) 2022 Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics. Marco Tagliamento, PhD student, medical oncologist, and research fellow at the Gustave Roussy Institute, France, told the symposium about study findings from the large Gustave Roussy Molecular Tumor Board dataset able to identify genetic mutations involved in clonal hematopoiesis. Tagliamento told the conference 113 patients—8 percent of their total—were found to have had at least one clonal hematopoiesis mutation that could be considered to place them at higher risk of developing hematologic malignancies. “Out of these patients, 45 were referred to our hematology unit by their oncologist and five were subsequently diagnosed with blood cancer: one with myelomonocytic leukemia, two with myelodysplastic syndrome and two with essential thrombocythemia,” Tagliamento told the symposium. Journalist Peter Goodwin briefly interviewed Tagliamento on his findings at EORTC-NCI-AACR.