Standardisation of liquid biopsies-plasma ccfDNA

Aim of the meeting

Today many institutions are testing ccfDNA mostly as clinical research, but the investigations have shown a huge potential for clinical diagnostics, especially in recurrent tumors. For these reasons, the OECI-Molecular Pathology WG, together with the ATMA Expert Centre, propose this meeting to draft a preliminary technical common protocol, which could be used by other European cancer centres with exchangeable results.

The meeting is organised by Molecular Pathology WG of the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI), the Expert Center ATMA, the Centro di Riferimento Oncologico (CRO) of Aviano, BBMRI.it and the Molecular Pathology WG of the European Society of Pathology (ESP) to prepare a preliminary common protocol for plasma ccfDNA liquid biopsies to be used for clinical investigations in a reproducible manner.

Standardisation of liquid biopsies-plasma ccfDNA meeting, restricted to a select number of molecular experts with a proven expertise in liquid biopsies, is kindly hosted and sponsored by the Aviano CRO, in whose Campus the ATMA CE is hosted, acting as Expert Centre to standardise procedures and lab. methodologies.

During the three-day meeting a preliminary protocol will be drafted and disseminated to cancer institutions, including all the OECI Members, for comments and further discussion at the next OECI Pathology Day planned in Brno – Czech Republic, on June 21^st, as part of the OECI Oncology Days 2017. We expect to reach a consensus on shared diagnostic, prognostic and predictive biomarkers for the major tumor types, to be studied at the plasma level.

After reaching a shared protocol, this will be tested in a multicentre validation study.

Draft Programme

1. Clinical collection of samples
2. Storage of clinical samples
3. Extraction of ccfDNA from plasma and its quantification
4. DNA storage
5. Amplification methods (PCR, realtime PCR, digital PCR)
6. Sequencing analyses
7. Preliminary discussion on ccfDNA application to the major tumor types (CRC, prostate, breast, lung,………) and preparation of further OECI meetings for tumor type discussion and diagnostic protocol definition.