Dr. Sparano on Application of Liquid Biopsies in Breast Cancer

Joseph A. Sparano, MD, associate director for clinical research, Albert Einstein Cancer Center, Montefiore Medical Center, discusses the application of liquid biopsies in breast cancer.

He says that while a liquid biopsy has some advantages over the standard tissue biopsy, there are some challenges that remain before it becomes part of routine clinical practice. The biggest challenge is that liquid biopsies have not yet been clinically proven to result in beneficial treatment for patients. While they are useful in detecting the mutational profile of a tumor, there is still work to be done in improving their clinical utility.

There might be some exceptions to that, says Sparano. Liquid biopsies can be useful in detecting ESR1 mutations, which are frequently found in the blood and usually come as a result of resistance to aromatase inhibition for patients with estrogen receptor-positive disease. Liquid biopsies are also effective in locating circulating tumor DNA.