Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with ALK rearrangements are treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), which often leads to prolonged overall survival. However, treatment resistance will almost inevitably occur, and the disease remains incurable.
The presentation will discuss a recent study addressing the longitudinal genotyping of circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from patients with ALK rearrangements by combining panel-based deep sequencing with shallow whole-genome sequencing.
The results suggest that this liquid biopsy approach might be able to improve the care of ALK-mutated NSCLC patients through early detection of resistance mutations and indications of disease progression.