Cell-free DNA liquid biopsy for prostate cancer

“[University of Washington] scientists found that about half of the mutations that liquid biopsies are detecting are not due to tumors; they are due to CHIP (clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminant potential). As the ages of patients increased, these CHIP variants were exponentially more frequent.  . . .  Misdiagnosis could be interfering with the treatment of as many as half of the prostate cancer patients getting liquid biopsies. However, the problem can be solved easily, . . . If the results from the plasma biopsy are compared to genetic results from whole blood, clinicians can differentiate between whether the mutations are coming from tumors or not.”   MORE WITH VIDEO

Image Credit:  Colin Pritchard and LabRoots.com