Clinical utility of comprehensive circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing compared to standard-of-care (SoC) tissue testing in first-line (1L) metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients (pts).

Abstract

15 Background: Accurate genotyping is mandatory for the management of mCRC pts. Tissue-based testing is still the SoC; however, is not available for all pts. and may be exhausted by serial testing, resulting in incomplete genotyping. We aimed to establish the validity of comprehensive non-invasive ctDNA testing in 1L mCRC pts for whom SoC tissue genotyping was available. Methods: 1L mCRC pts were tested with a comprehensive ctDNA test (Guardant360), a RAS ctDNA test (OncoBeam), and SoC tissue testing at the time of diagnosis. The primary endpoint was NCCN guideline biomarker discovery rate ( KRAS, NRAS, and BRAF mutations, ERBB2 amplification, and microsatellite instability). Results: In 91 evaluable pts, the biomarker discovery rate was 54.9% (50/91) for SoC tissue testing, 59.3% (54/91) for comprehensive ctDNA testing ( p= 0.0318 for non-inferiority vs. SoC), and 42.9% (39/91) for RAS ctDNA testing (inferiority not rejected vs. SoC). Both comprehensive and RAS ctDNA testing showed high positive agreement (85%, 44/52, and 86%, 31/36) and negative agreement (96%, 268/279, and 93%, 93/100) relative to SoC tissue testing at the gene level. Expanding genotyping beyond KRAS codon 12/13 mutations increased biomarker discovery rate by 56% for tissue testing (50/91 vs. 32/91, McNemar’s p< 0.0001) and by 64% for comprehensive ctDNA (54/91 vs. 33/91, McNemar’s p< 0.0001). Turnaround time was significantly shorter for comprehensive ctDNA testing vs. SoC tissue testing (mean 11.7 days vs. 23.0 days, paired T-test p= 0.0002). On retrospective analysis, 92% of biomarker-positive pts would have been identified at 2 weeks using the comprehensive ctDNA test for initial genotyping with reflex to tissue for biomarker-negative pts, whereas initial use of SoC tissue testing would have identified only 85% of positive pts at 4 weeks (Fisher’s exact p< 0.0001). Conclusions: As previously reported for lung cancer, comprehensive ctDNA testing in 1L mCRC identifies at least as many biomarker-positive pts as SoC tissue genotyping with high concordance to tissue and in half the turnaround time.