Screening tumor tissue for genetic alterations allows clinicians to identify patients who most likely will benefit from targeted therapy. EXLIQUID – exploiting liquid biopsies to advance cancer precision medicine – investigates the potential of additional non-invasive tools for guiding treatment decisions and for monitoring of cancer patients. 

The term “Liquid biopsies” (LBs) refers to non-invasive analysis of tumor-derived circulating material such as cell-free DNA in blood samples from cancer patients. Although recent technological advances allow sensitive and specific detection of LB biomarkers, only few LB assays have found their way into clinical routine. EXLIQUID is a DKTK-wide joint funding project that aims at establishing LBs as a minimally-invasive tool for the analysis of molecular alterations in cell-free tumor DNA (ctDNA). To this end, a multicenter repository of high-quality LB samples will be established from patients participating in MASTER and local molecular tumor boards (MTB), in which DNA profiles from tumor tissue are used to guide targeted therapies. In EXLIQUID, LB assays for early prediction of therapy efficacy will be developed based on the analysis of tumor mutant variants and tumor-specific DNA methylation patterns in the ctDNA from these patients. 

By bringing together LB experts from all DKTK partner sites and exploiting the diversity of their particular expertise, complementary skills and technologies, the EXLIQUID consortium addresses the challenges of translating LBs into the clinic. The DKTK structure enables EXLIQUID to be in a unique position to identify liquid biomarkers also in less common tumor types, thereby increasing the number of patients who can benefit from these approaches. 

In addition to its scientific aims, EXLIQUID is building a valuable precision oncology cohort and LB platform, which will be available for future collaborative research studies within the DKTK and beyond.