Liquid Biopsy

A few excerpts from an article in a MSK newsletter that may be of interest. This has not gone to clinical trial yet, but hopefully it will pan out:

“Liquid Biopsy Shows Promise for Guiding Prostate Cancer Treatment”

“Liquid biopsy, a new alternative to tissue biopsy, analyzes a patient’s blood for tumor cells or tumor DNA. It holds the tantalizing promise of a less invasive, more comprehensive way to deliver more-targeted therapy and to monitor response.”

“Information from this test could guide prostate cancer treatment decisions for some prostate cancer patients.”

“Before we can make this particular liquid biopsy part of routine practice, we first need to validate it in a clinical trial, which we are now designing to conduct through the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium. This will give us definitive answers about how well it predicts patient outcomes. But this type of test was not even conceivable just a few years ago — the technology is evolving so quickly it’s incredible.”

Here is a link to the full article:
/www.mskcc.org/blog/liquid-biopsy-shows-promise-guiding-prostate-cancer-treatment?utm_source=E-newsletter&utm_campaign=9914039709-&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9dd3dba32c-9914039709-295596061

ASAdvocate, I guess I don't understand.
If the CTCs can be examined why wouldn't it be a good enough biopsy for lower risk.
1) You would see the PCa cells
2) You could observe the PCa abnormality level.

I can see that getting a Gleason score might be a bit difficult.

They've got a ways to go..interesting..but they've barely got a handle on genomic testing let alone a "simple" blood test. I'm not betting my PCa future on it. LOL