Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Sep 15;126(18):4089-4091.
doi: 10.1002/cncr.32983. Epub 2020 May 30.

Speeding tumor genotyping during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak through liquid biopsy

Affiliations

Speeding tumor genotyping during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak through liquid biopsy

Christian Rolfo et al. Cancer. .

Abstract

This commentary proposes a shift in the current diagnostic workflow for patients with metastatic cancer to incorporate the use of liquid biopsy. This proposal, born in the time of a severe crisis for the health care system, might also be applied when the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) outbreak ends and thereby reduce the turnaround time for results from molecular testing for patients with cancer and increase the number of patients potentially benefiting from highly effective targeted therapies.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; cancer; cfDNA; liquid biopsy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Christian Rolfo reports roles in speaker bureaus for MSD and AstraZeneca; advisory board roles with ARCHER, Inivata, and Merck Serono; consultant roles with Mylan and Oncompass; a supported research grant from the Lung Cancer Research Foundation/Pfizer; and research support from Guardant Health and Biomark. The other authors made no disclosures.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Proposed flow for liquid biopsy application in patients with metastatic cancer during the SARS‐CoV‐2 outbreak and integration with other telemedicine tools. AE indicates adverse event; cfDNA, cell‐free DNA; NGS, next‐generation sequencing; SARS‐CoV‐2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. This figure was created with BioRender.

References

    1. Liang W, Guan W, Chen R, et al. Cancer patients in SARS‐CoV‐2 infection: a nationwide analysis in China. Lancet Oncol. 2020;21:335‐337. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30096-6 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yu J, Ouyang W, Chua MLK, Xie C. SARS‐CoV‐2 transmission in patients with cancer at a tertiary care hospital in Wuhan, China. JAMA Oncol. Published online March 25, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.0980 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hanna TP, Evans GA, Booth CM. Cancer, COVID‐19 and the precautionary principle: prioritizing treatment during a global pandemic. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2020;17:268‐270. doi:10.1038/s41571-020-0362-6 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cinar P, Kubal T, Freifeld A, et al. Safety at the time of the COVID‐19 pandemic: how to keep our oncology patients and healthcare workers safe. J Natl Compr Canc Netw. Published online April 15, 2020. doi:10.6004/jnccn.2020.7572 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sud A, Jones ME, Broggio J, et al. Collateral damage: the impact on cancer outcomes of the COVID‐19 pandemic. medRxiv . Published online January 1, 2020. doi:10.1101/2020.04.21.20073833 - DOI

Substances