Liquid Biopsy

20/06/2026

This isn’t a hypothetical. SAGA Diagnostics, in partnership with the Karolinska Institutet, published this in January 2026 from the CITCCA study, 377 patients with stage I–III colorectal cancer, followed after curative surgery.

Patients whose blood tested ctDNA-positive after surgery: 19% stayed recurrence-free at three years.

Patients whose blood tested ctDNA-negative: 95% stayed recurrence-free at three years.

That’s not a small effect. That’s the difference between cancer coming back for almost everyone in one group, and cancer staying away for almost everyone in the other.

Here’s the part that should make every oncologist pay attention: 42.5% of ctDNA-positive patients had molecular residual disease detectable only at ultrasensitive levels, below 100 parts per million. A standard-sensitivity assay would have missed more than 4 in 10 of these high-risk patients entirely.

This is what minimal residual disease testing actually does. It doesn’t just predict outcomes, it identifies exactly which patients need closer monitoring, earlier intervention, or additional therapy. And which patients can be reassured that, statistically, they’re going to be fine.



For more read 📚

- https: // https://lnkd.in/e4maV-GN
ultrasensitive-pathlight-mrd-test-in-
colorectal-cancer/
- https: //
https://lnkd.in/en_ZY5VK
en/

17/06/2026

Liquid Biopsy Found Cancer Where Tissue Biopsy Missed It, In 5,954 Patients

NCI-MATCH Trial cDNA vs. Tissue, ASCO Annual Meeting, May 2026, Chicago

Rini Pauly of the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research presented results at ASCO 2026 (May 29–June 2, Chicago) comparing mutations found in paired tumors and circulating tumor DNA from 5,954 patients with advanced cancers screened for NCI-MATCH, one of the largest precision medicine platform trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute.

In some cases, the ctDNA results revealed mutations where the tissue biopsy did not, likely due to tumour heterogeneity in advanced cancers, where a single tumour may harbour multiple mutations that a single-site tissue biopsy simply misses. This is one of the most powerful real-world arguments for liquid biopsy: it samples the whole tumour landscape simultaneously, not just one corner of it.

For more information 📚
- Frederick National Lab / ASCO 2026: https://lnkd.in/epPaFdNv

16/06/2026

Brain tumours are one of the hardest cancers to diagnose. Right now, confirming a brain tumour requires imaging, and often invasive brain surgery for tissue biopsy. The blood-brain barrier means most circulating tumour DNA never makes it into the bloodstream in meaningful quantities. Standard liquid biopsy approaches simply don’t work well here.

So MSK biomedical engineer Dr. Daniel Heller took a completely different approach.

Instead of looking for tumour DNA, his team built sensors from carbon nanotubes, tiny rod-like particles nearly 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, and combined them with machine learning.

The results were extraordinary.

Training on 739 plasma samples from brain tumour patients, the AI detected tumour presence with 98% accuracy and could identify tumour type with up to 71% accuracy.

But here’s what surprised even the researchers:

The nanosensors didn’t just pick up signals from the tumour cells themselves. They detected changes from the tumour microenvironment, the surrounding tissue and immune system responses throughout the body. That led the team to discover cancer-associated protein biomarkers that were previously completely unknown.

This matters for three reasons:

→ It works from a routine blood draw, no spinal tap, no surgery

→ It detected tumours across WHO grades I through IV, including early-grade gliomas

→ It opens an entirely new biomarker class that nobody had mapped before

Is it ready for the clinic? Not yet. This is early validation data and larger cohorts are needed.

But in 8 years of tracking this field, I’ve learned to pay close attention when MSK publishes something in Nature Nanotechnology with a 0.98 AUC.

This is one of those moments.

For more read 📚

- Heller et al. Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 21, Feb 2026 · DOI: 10.1038/s41565-025-02080-2

- MSK News: https://lnkd.in/e4Rr9vVd

ctDNA

10/06/2026

After 8 years and 2,000+ followers, these are the 5 questions I get asked most about liquid biopsy.

Honest, science-backed answers.



For more read 📚
- https://lnkd.in/e9rkphcK
- https://lnkd.in/eYyGJYbm
- https://lnkd.in/erYnF7Ec
- https://lnkd.in/edK6gWxf
- https://lnkd.in/etB9yprf

09/06/2026

50 Types of Cancer. One Blood Test. No Symptoms Yet.

Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED), The Biggest Promise in Oncology

A study published in the Annals of Oncology showed that a liquid biopsy test could detect over 50 types of cancer, often before symptoms appeared, with a remarkably low false-positive rate.

Multi-cancer blood tests could be a game changer, says Jagpreet Chhatwal, PhD, director of the Institute for Technology Assessment at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, lead author of a study that simulated the population-wide impact of MCED tests. Liquid biopsies can show signals for a lot of cancers for which we currently have no screening.

Only a few FDA-approved liquid biopsies are routinely used to detect specific cancers today, underscoring the gap between what the science can already do and what patients can currently access.



For more read:
- https://lnkd.in/e95xXaB3
- https://lnkd.in/e7xhy_Rn

08/06/2026

I’ve Been Sharing Liquid Biopsy Science Since 2017. Here’s What’s Changed.

My Personal 8-Year Journey + Field Evolution, Milestone + Community Post

In 2017 when I started working on Liquid biopsy, it had:

• ❌ No FDA-approved blood test for colorectal cancer screening

• ❌ No Medicare coverage for MRD testing

• ❌ No multi-cancer early detection clinical trials at scale

• ❌ No AI-integrated multimodal frameworks

• ❌ Just 1 companion diagnostic approval

By 2026:

• ✅ FDA-approved blood tests for CRC screening (Shield)

• ✅ Medicare, TRICARE, Medi-Cal coverage milestones

• ✅ 26 companion diagnostic approvals (Guardant360 CDx)

• ✅ ESMO global clinical guidelines published

• ✅ 99% pure cancer DNA isolation achieved

• ✅ 2,171 followers who care about every step

06/06/2026

A Blood Test Reduced Cancer Anxiety in 62% of Patients

Liquid Biopsy’s Hidden Superpower, Mental Health & Quality of Life

Emotional, unexpected angle. Nobody talks about anxiety reduction.

In the BESPOKE CRC study, ctDNA testing reduced recurrence-related anxiety in 62% of patients, particularly in those testing negative (p

05/06/2026

Scientists Just Solved Liquid Biopsy’s Biggest Problem

Volition’s Capture-Seq™, 99% Pure Cancer DNA, World First

The biggest problem facing liquid biopsy worldwide is that the vast majority of circulating DNA in blood plasma samples comes from healthy cells, not cancer cells. In a world first, Volition developed Capture-Seq™ and produced >99% pure cancer-derived plasma DNA sequence sets for liquid biopsy, virtually isolating only the tumor signal from blood.

In two independent cohorts Volition reported no false positives and detected 49/49 cancers in the first cohort, including 23 early stage I/II, and validated it in a second blinded cohort with 13/14 later stage cancers detected. Then just one week later, Volition announced >95% detection of early-stage cancers using Capture-Seq™.



For more read 📚

- https://lnkd.in/eT-PMmef

- https://lnkd.in/e5WDTJCk

04/06/2026