Immunotherapies harness the power of the human immune system to fight cancer by educating the patient’s immune cells to attack specific tumors. However, these therapies only work for patients who have immunosensitive tumors. Biomarkers are measurable biological factors used to provide insights into an individual patient’s tumor cells which can help identify specific cancers expected to respond to immunotherapies.

Biomarker analysis is usually performed on patient tumor tissue but the biopsy procedure can be complicated in hard to access locations such as the lung. For this reason, immunotherapy biomarker techniques have been developed allowing tumor DNA to be accessed from tissue as well as from peripheral blood samples. Analysis of tumor DNA from blood is called liquid biopsy.

Schedule a consultation with our research team to discuss your specific needs.

The circulating blood tumor DNA (known as ctDNA) can be analyzed at ResearchDx with the same molecular techniques used for tissue DNA and includes the following biomarkers:

• Mutation analysis of cancer-related genes
• Microsatellite instability (MSI) testing to identify changes in the length of DNA regions indicative of tumors that may respond to precision medicine drugs such as PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors.
• Tumor mutational burden (TMB) to identify highly mutated tumors (TMB-H) that may be sensitive to PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors such as pembrolizumab.

ResearchDx performs liquid biopsy analysis of tumor DNA in its CAP/CLIA certified laboratory PacificDx.  For more information, please visit: https://pacificdx.com/plasmadx/

Our CAP/CLIA certified lab, PacificDx offers state-of-the-art facilities and expertise to meet your immediate clinical and pre-clinical needs for high-quality clinical and biopharmaceutical testing services.