Greater cfDNA Recovery May Help Accelerate Development of Cancer Liquid Biopsy Applications

PHASE Scientific, a high-growth biotechnology company that develops innovative sample preparation technologies, announced new findings at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting II. The study presented by MD Anderson Cancer Center evaluates the efficacy of PHASE Scientific's liquid phase DNA isolation method (PHASIFY™) in improving cancer liquid biopsy sensitivity. Early-stage cancer diagnostics and cancer screening applications are limited by low yields of extracted cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from plasma samples. PHASE Scientific has developed a novel liquid phase DNA isolation method that leverages aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) to purify and concentrate circulating cfDNA, which can result in increased cfDNA recovery and improved mutant signal detection. "PHASE Scientific's technology has shown a significant improvement against conventional solid phase methods for extracting circulating cell-free tumor DNA," says presenter Dr. Filip Janku, MD, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, MD Anderson Cancer Center. "The ability to enable such an increase of cfDNA yield in patient plasma samples is vital for improving downstream molecular diagnostic sensitivity, efficiency, and cost." The study compared cfDNA recovery and mutation detection from plasma samples extracted with a conventional solid phase method (QIAamp Circulating Nucleic Acid kit - QCNA) and our liquid phase method (PHASIFY™ MAX cfDNA extraction kit). 89 plasma samples from patients with diverse advanced cancers with known BRAF, KRAS or NRAS mutation status were tested.