Prospective testing of circulating tumour DNA in metastatic breast cancer facilitates clinical trial enrollment and precision oncology

Abstract

Background The increasing availability of targeted agents for treatment of metastatic breast cancer (mBC) necessitates accurate and timely molecular characterisation of disease. As a minimally invasive test, circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) is well positioned to overcome many of the limitations associated with traditional tumor biopsies. Here, we established a program to assess the feasibility of routine prospective ctDNA testing for the clinical management of mBC patients. Methods Detection of somatic mutations from patient plasma was performed using a multiplexed droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) approach to identify hotspot mutations in PIK3CA, ESR1, ERBB2 and AKT1. In parallel, a subset of sampl..