Blood test maps targetable mutations in 12,827 metastatic breast cancer patients
Researchers analyzed 15,564 plasma samples from 12,827 patients with metastatic breast cancer, sequencing the samples with Guardant360 and sorting them into subtypes with a trained random forest model, according to a paper in Nature Communications. Most patients carried variants tied to treatment resistance. The team found actionable alterations in PIK3CA, ESR1, PTEN, and AKT1 that differed from the primary tumors and pointed to separate resistant clones. The National Institutes of Health helped fund the work.
Oncologists and trial designers now have a reference dataset for matching metastatic breast cancer patients to targeted experimental therapies.
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