Liquid Biopsy analysis represents an optimal alternative testing procedure in cases where tumor tissue is unavai-lable, e.g., irresectable tumors or poor patient conditions. The main target of Liquid Biopsy analysis is cell-free DNA (cfDNA) which is increasingly released into the bloodstream by necrotic and apoptotic cells in patients with cancer and other types of diseases. Circulating cfDNA is released from both normal and tumor cells. The fraction of tumor-derived cfDNA (circulating tumor DNA/ctDNA) depends on tumor entity, tumor stage, tumor burden, and other factors and therefore is not the same in every patient. Since only a fraction of circulating cfDNA is derived from the tumor, highly sensitive methods are required to detect minimal ctDNA concentrations.
CeGaT has established and validated extensive Liquid Biopsy panels assessing cell-free DNA. CancerPrecision® uses Liquid Biopsy testing to provide a complete genetic profile of the patient’s tumor, supporting the choice of the best possible therapy. A tumor content of at least 20% is required for this analysis. Since the content of ctDNA can be less than 20%, CeGaT also offers CancerDetect®, a duplex UMI-based panel. CancerDetect® identifies sequence vari-ants in actionable, most prevalent driver mutations with an allele frequency above 0.25%. This highly sensitive detec-tion of tumor-specific biomarkers represents an excel-lent tool for monitoring treatment response and minimal residual disease. In addition, the method’s high sensitivity makes failure much less likely, even with a low tumor fraction in the sample.