Liquid biopsy was a central focus of the second day of the Precision Medicine World Conference (PMWC 2024) (January 24-26) with multiple awards, four stimulating panel sessions, and a riveting keynote address by a longtime leader in the accelerating field filling the entire day of topic track 4 “Next-Generation Technology.” In the opening event, three awards were presented. David Sidransky, MD, Professor of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University, was given a Pioneer Award for trailblazing the field of early cancer detection through a focus on tumor-shed DNA in bodily fluids, and improving patient outcomes through development of the patient-derived xenograft (PDX) model. Both Helmy Eltoukhy, PhD, Chairman, Co-Founder, and Co-CEO, Guardant Health, and AmirAli Talasaz, PhD, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, also of Guardant Health, were presented with Luminary Awards for transforming the precision oncology field through the development of the advanced non-invasive liquid biopsy.
These awards were followed by a brief presentation by the Track 4 chair Laura Van’t Veer, PhD, UCSF, who spoke on the “Utilities of Liquid Biopsy in Biomarker Testing.” Dr. Van’t Veer is a world-renowned molecular biologist whose research focuses on precision medicine to advance patient management based on knowledge of the genetic makeup of the tumor and the patient. As inventor of MammaPrint, she has made a seminal impact on rightsizing the treatment of breast cancer and on molecular genomics.
Next was a panel discussion chaired by Dr. Eltoukhy on the “Status Quo of Clinical Liquid Biopsy.” The panelists included Sadakatsu Ikeda, TMDU; Heather A. Parsons, Dana Farber Cancer Institute; and Sanjay Popat, The Royal Marsden.
A second panel discussion followed on “Liquid Biopsy for Health Monitoring and Disease Prevention.” This was chaired by Dr. Anne-Renee Hartman, Adela, and the panelists included Dr. Talasaz, Guardant; Dr. Heather A. Parsons, Dana Farber Cancer Institute; Dr. Mary Pat Lancelotta, Adaptive Biotech; and Dr. Sylvia Plevritis, Stanford.
Following lunch was a third panel discussion, this one titled “Multi-Cancer Early Detection Through Multi-Biomarker Class Liquid Biopsy Testing” and chaired by Dr. Tom Beer, Exact Sciences. The panelists included Dr. Wendy Rubenstein, NIH/NCI, and Sheila Walcoff, JD, Goldbug Strategies.
Next was a keynote address by Pioneer Award winner Dr. Sidransky entitled “Pioneering Liquid Nucleic Acid Tumor Fragments in Health and Diseases.” He began by crediting his early advisor Dr. Bert Vogelstein at Johns Hopkins and ended by thanking all of the collaborators and patients who had contributed to the major advances he has been able to make.
This compelling talk was followed by a fourth panel discussion. This one was titled “New Approaches of Liquid Biopsy” and was chaired by Victor Velculescu, MD, PhD, Co-Director of Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics, Johns Hopkins. The panelists included Dr. Sidransky, Dr. Daniel De Carvalha, University of Toronto; and Dr. Dan Landau, New York Genome Center.
Next was the fifth and closing panel, titled “Global Implications: A Scalable Liquid Biopsy for HPV-Related Cervical Cancer” and chaired by Dr. Debra Fraser-Howze, Choose Healthy Life. Panelists included Dr. Belinda Nedjai, Wolfson Institute of Population Health; and Dr. Elisabeth Adams, Aquarius Population Health Limited.
by Michael D. O’Neill, Editor & Publisher, BioQuick News