Liquid biopsy – a flexible, convenient alternative to tissue sampling

Tissue biopsy is the current gold standard, but it is not always available, or it can be very difficult to obtain (e.g. in lung cancer). It is also not practical to routinely use tissue samples for follow-up of patients. In contrast, liquid biopsy is a convenient and non-invasive method to obtain such information for advancing clinical studies. Because of this, liquid biopsy has now been included in some cancer guidelines already, including those for lung, colorectal and breast cancers.

Our OncoBEAM™ technology has been the most sensitive technology available by almost factor 20x versus other routine technologies such as PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and conventional NGS (next-generation sequencing). SafeSEQ, the technology building the basis of the new Plasma-SeqSensei™ product line, offers similar sensitivity combined with higher workflow convenience. The sensitivity is achieved by barcoding each sample, thereby reducing error rates by >100x.

Why use liquid biopsy?

• High concordance with tissue samples in most cancers
• Minimally invasive, tissue samples may be difficult to obtain
• More cost-effective than tissue biopsy
• More convenient for clinicians and patients
• Holistic tumour information (tissue samples may not be representative due to a sampling error)
• Faster turnaround time (TAT) compared to tissue sample handling
• Repeat sampling possible in contrast to tissue samples
• Real-time information

Why use Plasma-SeqSensei™?

• Highly sensitive – able to detect 7 MM (mutant molecules) with 95 % confidence across all mutations (absolute quantification) and corresponding to a sensitivity of <0.07% MAF (mutant allele frequency, approx. 40 % of samples have MAF below detection limit of most technologies)
• High flexibility of between 2 - 16 samples/run
• High laboratory efficiency as several different types of samples may be processed in one run
• Standardised workflow, high reproducibility
• Fast TAT (2 days)
• Convenient software

Sysmex Inostics is the worldwide pioneer in Liquid Biopsy, established in 2008 and joining Sysmex in 2013.  With more than 10 years’ experience in liquid biopsy, Sysmex Inostics is a trusted partner to leading pharmaceutical companies, advancing their efforts to bring the most effective personalised cancer therapies to global markets, from discovery through companion diagnostics.