Breakfast Breakout Discussion Groups
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19 | 8:00-9:00 AM
Chew over continental breakfast and thought-provoking discussion topics with your peers. These are moderated discussions with brainstorming and interactive problem-solving, allowing conference participants from diverse backgrounds to exchange ideas and experiences and develop future collaborations around a focused topic.
Table 1: Crossing the Chasm - Maturing Liquid Biopsy from a Niche to Mainstream Diagnostic Tool
Jack Challis, PhD, Director, Healthcare Analytics, Lucence Diagnostics
- Disruptive innovations like plastics, mass-produced automobiles and smartphones began life as relatively narrow, niche technologies that all rapidly progressed into mainstream technologies in their respective areas.
- What technological, clinical and regulatory obstacles must be overcome for liquid biopsy to become mainstream?
- How can researchers, industry, providers and regulators work together to ensure liquid biopsy benefits as many patients as possible?
Table 2: Liquid Biopsy in Brain Tumors
Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern, PhD, Head, Cancer Genomics and BioComputing of Complex Diseases Lab, The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University
- Low tumor burden in plasma tumors
- Glioblastoma as a rare disease
- Novel biomarkers
Table 3: Some Remaining Challenges for Somatic Variant Calling in Liquid Biopsies
Chris Karlovich, PhD, Associate Director, Molecular Characterization & Clinical Assay Development Laboratory, Leidos BioMedical Research, Inc., Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research
- Accurate identification of clonal hematopoiesis variants
- Assessment of tumor mutational burden
- Fusions and CNVs
Table 4: Blood Cells as a Reservoir of Oncogenic DNA in Blood
Janusz Rak, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, Experimental Medicine and Biochemistry, McGill University
- Why are blood cells (platelets, leukocytes) understudied as carriers of oncogenic DNA?
- What are the potential advantages and challenges of using platelets as carriers of oncogenic DNA?
- What are potential advantages and challenges of using leukocytes as carriers of oncogenic DNA in blood?
Table 5: Novel Biomarker Development: Tumor Mutational Burden
Mark Stewart, PhD, Vice President, Science Policy, Friends of Cancer Research
- Opportunities and challenges associated with measuring blood TMB
- Considerations for a pan-cancer biomarker using ctDNA
- Unique developmental and regulatory considerations for liquid biopsy tests
Table 6: Developing Liquid Biopsy Technologies in a Rapidly Changing Healthcare Environment
Andrew Z. Wang, MD, CEO, Capio Biosciences
- What values do liquid biopsy technologies offer to payers?
- How to navigate alternative payment plans/bundled payment
- Barriers to clinical adoption