Preliminary Experience of Liquid Biopsy in Lung Cancer Compared to Conventional Assessment: Light and Shadows

Purpose: To assess the qualitative relationship between liquid biopsy and conventional tissue biopsy. As a secondary target, we evaluated the relationship between the liquid biopsy results and the T stage, N stage, M stage, and compared to grading. Methods: The Local Ethics Committee of the “Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli”, with the internal resolution number 24997/2020 of 12.11.2020, approved this spontaneous prospective study. According to the approved protocol, patients with lung cancer who underwent Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC), CT-guided biopsy, and liquid biopsy were enrolled. A Yates chi-square test was employed to analyze differences in percentage values of categorical variables. A p-value p > 0.05, Yates chi-square test). Conclusions: We showed that, when a genetic mutation was detected in pathological examination, this was always detected by liquid biopsy, demonstrating a very high concordance rate of genomic testing between tissues and their corresponding mutations obtained by liquid biopsy, without cases of false-negative results. In addition, in our study, liquid biopsy highlighted 26 mutations, with the prevalence of ALK mutation in 96.6% of patients, supporting the idea that this approach could be an effective tool in cases with insufficient tumor tissue specimens or in cases where tissue specimens are not obtainable