“Liquid biopsy has also become important in breast cancer. In practice it consists of a blood sample, so there is no longer any need to take a sample of material from the tumor and this gives a great advantage to patients. In breast cancer it is specifically useful in this field, but there will be many other applications, to demonstrate the presence or absence of a mutation of a gene called Esr1”. This is what Saverio Cinieri, president of the Aiom Foundation and director of Medical Oncology and the Breast Unit at the Perrino hospital in Brindisi, told Adnkronos Salute, during a press conference promoted today in Rome, with the unconditional contribution of Menarini Stemline, with experts from the Aiom Foundation and Fmp (Foundation for Personalized Medicine) to ask that the new oral hormone therapies also be available in Italy.
“The mutation of the Esr1 gene is around 30% – explains Cinieri – but the data is increasing as laboratory techniques are refined, so it could even reach 40% in women affected by breast cancer with positive hormone receptors who have failed a first line of endocrine therapy with cyclin inhibitors and aromatase inhibitors. Therefore, having the mutation favors the assumption of the new drug elacestrant which has given important results in this field and which we are using in compassionate use in Italy because at the moment we are waiting for the authorization from Aifa, which I hope will happen as soon as possible”.
Liquid biopsy “has changed the history of oncology because, I repeat, once you had to do tissue biopsies. Often these women have only a bone disease, and doing a bone biopsy is demanding and more complex than a tissue exam. The test is essential because, if you don’t have the Esr1 mutation, the drug may work less well”, concludes the oncologist.
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