Klaus Pantel, MD, on Liquid Biopsy Research: Opportunities and Challenges
AACR Annual Meeting 2022
Klaus Pantel, MD, of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, discusses liquid biopsy technologies and biomarkers, with a focus on circulating tumor cells and circulating tumor DNA; clinical applications such as early detection of cancer, improved staging, and surveillance of measurable residual disease; and how best to detect and monitor response to systemic therapies, as well as ways to identify therapeutic targets and resistance mechanisms (Abstract SY08).
The ASCO Post Staff
Charles L. Sawyers, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the battle against treatment resistance and how to overcome it, as well as the power of observational clinical data in precision oncology, derived largely from his experience with Project GENIE, and the role of genetic ancestry (Abstract PL02).
The ASCO Post Staff
Matthew L. Meyerson, MD, PhD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses study findings that suggest the variation in frequency of EGFR and KRAS mutations in lung cancer may be associated with genetic ancestry in patients from Latin America. The results indicate it may be possible to identify germline alleles underpinning this link. Finding a germline locus or loci may impact the development of lung cancers with these mutations and may improve lung cancer prevention and screening for populations of Latin American origin, as well as others.
The ASCO Post Staff
Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, of the Yale University School of Medicine, discusses how patients may benefit in the coming decade from discoveries about agents that target KRAS, and how important the approval of sotorasib turned out to be, as well as other agents in the research pipeline. Dr. LoRusso also talks about the scientific advances in tackling inhibition (Abstract SY20).
The ASCO Post Staff
Jia Luo, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the emerging class of cancer therapies for allele-specific KRAS inhibitors and the importance of their distinct clinical, genomic, and immunologic features. Because KRAS G12D–mutated non–small cell lung cancer is associated with worse responses to immunotherapy, Dr. Luo believes drug development will need to take these differences into account (Abstract 4117).
The ASCO Post Staff
Marcia R. Cruz-Correa, MD, PhD, of the University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses a way to possibly transform cancer outcomes by teaming up basic scientists, clinical researchers, and community advocates to work together, decode the complexity of cancer, and find points at which to intervene in the development of tumor cells. One strong focus is on communities disproportionately affected based on their genomic ancestry, geographic location, and ethnicity (Abstract PL06).
