Liquid biopsy, the use of a liquid specimen such as blood, urine or cerebral spinal fluid to detect circulating cell free tumor cells or DNA is increasingly being used as an alternative to invasive surgical biopsies. Oropharyngeal, cervical, and anal cancers are each associated with high risk HPV subtypes, which can either be integrated into tumor genomes or remain episomal. HPV DNA is an attractive substrate for liquid biopsy detection because one cancer cell may have many copies of HPV DNA. Emerging reports find a high sensitivity of detection and possible utility in minimal residual disease detection for these diseases. In infectious disease diagnosis, the utility of liquid biopsy for deep-seated infection is similarly being explored and reports are emerging on its applications in the detection of cell-free fungal DNA to diagnose invasive fungal infections.
Opportunities and Challenges of Fungal Cell-Free DNA Testing for Diagnosis of Invasive Fungal Infection
Niaz Banaei, MD, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
Detecting HPV Circulating Tumor DNA by Liquid Biopsy
Daniel Higginson, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
Objectives:
- Review the concept of liquid biopsy and cell free DNA detection for molecular diagnosis.
- Describe applications of liquid biopsy and cell-free DNA detection for the diagnosis of fungal infections.
- Discuss the role of HPV in oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer.
Duration: 1.00 hr
Recording Date: November 9, 2019
CME/CMLE credit: 1.00 hr
Last day to purchase course and CE claim credit: December 24, 2022
