https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2020.572895/full

Edinburgh, UK – October 8, 2020 – A new study demonstrates the potential of Vortex Biosciences’ technology to revolutionize lung cancer management by enabling comprehensive monitoring of EGFR mutations from a single blood sample. This breakthrough offers a less invasive and more dynamic alternative to traditional tumor biopsies, which are often risky and provide only a snapshot in time.

The research focused on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), where EGFR mutations are crucial for guiding targeted therapies. The study developed and optimized a workflow combining Vortex’s CTC capture with the EntroGen ctEGFR assay, allowing for simultaneous analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating tumor DNA (cfDNA).

This combined approach achieved high sensitivity, identifying EGFR mutations at low DNA concentrations. Crucially, the study confirmed that processing plasma-depleted blood yielded comparable capture recovery to whole blood, enabling multi-modality liquid biopsy analysis from a single tube. Initial results from a cohort of 24 NSCLC patients are encouraging, suggesting this workflow is a valuable tool for informing therapy selection and monitoring treatment response in lung cancer patients.