Page 54 - SRPSKO DRUŠTVO ISTRAŽIVAČA RAKA

Serbian Association for Cancer Research SDIRSACR

PLENARY LECTURES

PL1

The potential of comprehensive liquid biopsy analysis for the management of cancer patients

Evi Lianidou

Analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells (ACTC) Lab, Dept of Chemistry, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Key words: Liquid biopsy, Circulating tumor cells, cell-free DNA, circulating tumor DNA, tumor biomarkers

Over the last decade, liquid biopsy has gained much attention as a powerful tool in personalized medicine
since it enables monitoring cancer evolution and follow-up of cancer patients in real time. Through minimally
invasive procedures, liquid biopsy provides important information through the analysis of circulating tumour
cells (CTCs) and circulating tumour-derived material, such as circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), circulating
miRNAs (cfmiRNAs) and extracellular vehicles (EVs). CTC enumeration and molecular characterization analysis
provides important clinical information in patients with many types of cancer. CTC analysis has already had
an important impact on the prognosis, detection of minimal residual disease (MRD), treatment selection and
monitoring of cancer patientsas this has been clearly shown in many clinical studies. CTC analysis is now an
exponentially expanding field in almost all types of solid cancers.
In parallel, plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) analysis using a variety of technologies is now established as a liquid
biopsy approachto track geneand epigenetic alterations in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). ctDNA analysisis
highly beneficial for the identification of tumor molecular dynamics and the improvement of personalized
treatments for cancer patients. In this presentation, we will discuss whether paired analysis of CTCs and ctDNA
provide similar or complementary information for the analysis of liquid biopsy analytes (gene mutations and
DNA-methylation markers). We will present data from our direct comparison studies of paired samples of
patients with NSCLC, and breast cancer, using the same blood draws and identical downstream molecular
assays. Our resultsreveal that CTC-derived gDNAsand paired ctDNA provide complementary information and
that CTC-derived gDNA analysis should be further evaluated as an important and complementary tool to
ctDNA for guiding individualized therapy.

PL2
ctDNA-Response evaluation criteria in solid tumors - significance for monitoring of patient outcomes

Karen-Lise Garm Spindler

Department of Clinical Medicine, Health, Aarhus University -DK
Department of Oncology and Experimental Clinical Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital- DK

Keywords:Solid tumors, Liquid biopsies, ctDNA RECIST

This lecture will briefly adress the overall progress in the field of ctDNA research in solid tumors and then engage
into the use of ctDNA for monitoring of treatment response in medical oncology and a discussions with focus on the
patients perspective.
The development of reliable biomarkers for treatment monitoring is a critical need in oncology. Circulating tumor DNA
(ctDNA) has emerged as a minimally invasive, real-time tool for tracking tumor burden and treatment response across
solid tumors. While imaging-based treatment evaluation remains the current standard, it provides only delayed and
sometimes imperfect correlation with patient outcomes.
To address this gap, the ctDNA-RECIST program has proposed standardized response evaluation criteria based on

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