Abstract PL2: Cell free plasma tumor DNA in breast oncology

Abstract

Abstract In the past decade, there has been great interest in the use of circulating cell-free DNA to help guide therapy decisions in clinical oncology. Recent work by our group and others suggests that circulating cell-free plasma tumor DNA offers advantages compared to tissue biopsies for mutation profiling. This concept of “liquid biopsy” may allow for a more global genomic picture of metastatic disease since blood serves as a reservoir for all metastatic sites. In addition, cell-free plasma tumor DNA can be measured serially and quantitatively, presenting the possibility of using circulating plasma tumor DNA as a biomarker to measure disease burden and response to therapies for both early and late stage disease. In this session, I will review historic and recent studies demonstrating the clinical potential of measuring cell-free plasma tumor DNA in breast cancer patients for early stage and metastatic disease. I will also outline future steps needed to translate liquid biopsies from research use to clinical practice, and recent work highlighting the first multi-institutional prospective clinical trial evaluating cell-free plasma tumor DNA in early stage breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Citation Format: Park BH. Cell free plasma tumor DNA in breast oncology [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2016 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PL2.