ASCO 2018: Can Genome-Wide Sequencing Assays Detect Early-Stage Lung Cancer?
Posted: Monday, June 11, 2018
Plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) genome-sequencing assays, widely used for the care of advanced lung cancer, may also help detect early-stage lung cancers, according to an initial report from the ongoing Circulating Cell-Free Genome Atlas (CCGA) study. These results were presented at the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago (Abstract LBA8501). Methods will continue to develop to improve assay performance and avoid false-positive results caused by clonal hematopoiesis.
“We’re excited that initial results from the CCGA study show it is possible to detect early-stage lung cancer from blood samples using genome sequencing,” lead study author Geoffrey R. Oxnard, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, noted in a recent ASCO press release. “There is an unmet need globally for early detection tests for lung cancer that can be easily implemented by health-care systems.” The CCGA study enrolled more than 12,000 of the planned 15,000 participants (70% with cancer) across 141 sites in the United States and Canada.
The investigators analyzed blood that was prospectively collected from 127 patients with lung cancer and 580 patients from a control group with no cancer diagnosis. Three sequencing assays were performed: paired cfDNA and white blood cell–targeted sequencing (WBC), paired cfDNA and white blood cell whole genome sequencing (WGS), and cfDNA whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS).
With a 98% specificity, the WGBS assay detected 41% of early-stage (stages I to IIIA) lung cancers as well as 89% of late-stage (stages IIIB to IV) cancers. Similar results were obtained with the WGS assay: It detected 38% of early-stage cancers and 87% of late-stage cancers. As for the targeted WBC assay, it detected 51% of early-stage cancers and 89% of late-stage cancers.
