Pan-Tumor Assay for Hematologic Malignancies
GTC’s Liquid Trace Hematology is a highly sensitive, pan-cancer test that evaluates circulating cell-free (cf) RNA and DNA and provides highly informative data that can be used for diagnosis, evaluation of the host immune response, and identification of biomarkers useful for predicting response to various therapies.
GTC’s Liquid Trace can significantly reduce the need for bone marrow biopsies for hematology patients. Furthermore, the test can detect chromosomal abnormalities, translocations, and gene amplifications.
Liquid Trace can detect all types of hematologic cancers including:
Use CSF as a liquid biopsy specimen for your brain cancer patients
Many conventional liquid biopsy tests are dependent solely on cfDNA analysis, which presents multiple challenges. These include variations in DNA shedding between tumors as well as low sensitivity (especially in early-stage cancer), difficulty in detecting fusion genes (i.e., chromosomal translocations leading to the expression of chimeric mRNA from two genes), and inability to detect the numerous biological processes that modify RNA expression levels, such as alternative splicing, stability, and allele-specific methylation. The latter limitation is critically important as recent studies have shown that RNA testing provides another level of biological information regarding the tumor and its microenvironment.
The Benefits of cfRNA
Studies have found RNA sequencing to be more sensitive for some types of mutations, likely because cancer cells typically contain one copy of mutated DNA but numerous copies of RNA. This research is consistent with GTC’s findings that cfRNA has increased sensitivity over cfDNA alone. More specifically, cfRNA allows GTC’s Liquid Trace to detect more mutations and fusions in hematologic and solid tumor samples, which may be undetected with conventional cfDNA.
T-cell and B-cell clonality detection: The detection of T- and B-cell clonality is important because it can help diagnose and monitor lymphoid and plasma cell malignancies. When malignant transformation occurs in T- or B-cells, the cells can undergo uncontrolled clonal expansion, resulting in the accumulation of many cells with the identical T- or B-cell receptor.
HLA class I genotyping: May be useful when identifying candidates for immunotherapy.
Torque teno virus (TTV): TTV was first discovered in a patient with non-A-E hepatitis and is now regarded as a part of the human virome. In general, it does not cause pathology in immunocompetent individuals. TTV is considered as a marker of the level of immune competence in patients with immunological impairment and inflammatory disorders. High TTV load is associated with increased risk of infection. In patients with organ transplant, low TTV load is associated with an increased risk of rejection.
Sensitivity is 0.1 to 0.01 for non-hot spot, 0.01 to 0.001 for hotspot and <0.001 for tumor informed or prior Hx.
For DNA, QNS is rare (<0.1%), but it is higher for RNA (Good DNA results but poor RNA results. Of course, if we receive 3 ml of plasma (6 ml blood), the sample is QNS for performing RNA testing.
VAF (Variant Allele Frequency) value: This value is used to monitor the disease in liquid bx. The high the VAF means higher tumor load. Patients showing reduction in VAF after treatment means they are doing better.