Technical factors are a major source of variation in liquid biopsy test results, according to a study published online March 14 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. While biological factors, including low rates of tumor shedding and tumor heterogeneity are known to complicate analysis, the authors highlight that technical factors may be an underappreciated source of testing errors and raise “clinical concern” for false positive (FP) and false negative (FN) tests results. “Although our study demonstrated that the majority of tumor-plasma discordance is a result of technical factors, with continuous improvement over time, NGS should approach the state of genotyping technology in which the majority of discordance is attributable to biologic factors such as tumor heterogeneity and clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential,” write the authors led by Daniel Stetson, from AstraZeneca in Boston, Mass. The need for a noninvasive test to monitor a patient’s ongoing mutational status is fueling the integration of liquid biopsy testing into clinical practice. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved several plasma-based genotyping tests for clinical use, including tests that analyze hot spot mutations or specific genes such as EGFR and KRAS, as well as some gene panel tests—Oncomine (Thermo Fisher Scientific), Memorial Sloan Kettering–Integrated […]