Liquid Biopsy for Early Cancer Detection

Our Tests Actually Show if Your Cancer is Still Growing or Not

The most important identifier of how well your cancer treatment is working is not the number of dead cancer cells in your blood (which is the measure used by standard liquid biopsy tests). In fact, that commonly used measurement tells you very little about how well your cancer care is working. Think about it. Just because some cancer cells are dying, doesn’t mean your body isn’t producing even more of them.

In reality, in order to have confidence that your treatment plan is working as well as hoped, the information you need is this: the measurement of how many new cells, carrying the cancerous mutation, are still being produced by the body.

Liquid Biopsy Labs is the only liquid biopsy company in the world today to prioritize the monitoring of this crucial indicator of treatment success. We use a rigorous, proprietary method of identifying and isolating exosomal DNA.

Our Tests Provide 99+% Accuracy

Our analysis is based entirely on exosomal DNA and, therefore, is indicative of metastatic process. We use positive and negative controls to ensure that our information is accurate. This is also unheard of in standard liquid biopsy testing. And it means that, with 99+% confidence, you can tell if the cancer is growing or not.

And, with LBL tests, you can see any new tumor growth more than 8 months before tumors would be visible through even the most advanced imaging diagnostics, such as PET/CT.

How We Measure Accuracy

Our Tests Make NO Assumptions

Our test includes a critical factor: verification of the mutation. And while this may sound obvious, it’s a crucial element that other liquid biopsy tests have ignored.

This one error on the part of typical liquid biopsy testing services contributes to a) many patients receiving unhelpful treatments; and b) the medical science world having a confused perspective on the true benefits of liquid biopsy for cancer treatment monitoring.

Other liquid biopsy tests simply tell you whether a mutation is present or not – which tells you nothing about what will work for treatment.

Liquid Biopsy Labs tests, on the other hand, show you whether or not a mutation is causative or problematic. So you don’t just target a mutation because it showed up on some genetic panel, or because it's commonly associated with a certain type of cancer.

Instead, you have evidence-based confidence that it is a problematic mutation. And, therefore, you don't waste time targeting the wrong mutation.

Why Is This So Important?

For even greater precision, Liquid Biopsy Labs uses a two step identification process:

1. We assess that the mutation is present and establish a baseline level of how many new cancerous cells are in the blood sample, and;
2. We also confirm the DNA in the normal cells at that same point in the mutation.

Without realizing, most liquid biopsies are based on confounding assumptions about what a ‘normal’ reading should be in that location of the gene. The kits and tools that standard liquid biopsies use to identify a causative mutation are all based on these assumptions of what the original gene contained – rather than assessing, for each individual patient, what is present in that same location naturally for them.

This one element alone can differ greatly from person to person. And, if your liquid biopsy test does not assess each patient’s ‘normal’ (but instead assumes they are all the same), you can see how this would lead to a variety of consequences: completely inaccurate results, less-than-targeted treatment choices, wasted time and money for the medical system – and, most importantly, for the patient.

Liquid Biopsy Labs’ tests ensure that every targeted treatment given is truly matched to each individual patient, and a personalized monitoring test is designed for their unique mutations.

Why Is This So Important?

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Our Tests Make NO Assumptions: Explained

A little background in human genetics is required to understand why Liquid Biopsy Labs’ unique testing protocol is so much more accurate and beneficial to cancer patients than standard liquid biopsy tests.

First, it's important to understand that a) we have two copies of every gene, and b) that liquid biopsy testing is used to detect the mutated copy – which is assumed (though not accurately) by standard testing facilities, to only be in the cancer cells. Based on this assumption, the standard liquid biopsy process compares the level of the mutated copy (again, assumed to only be in tumor cells) to the amount of the non-mutated (i.e. normal) DNA, which is assumed to be in your healthy cells.

This comparison gives you a ratio called the relative percentage. In standard liquid biopsies, this relative percentage is what is monitored to see if a treatment is working or not: if it is higher than the initial/baseline test, the treatment is not working; if it is lower than the initial test, then the treatment is working.

LBL’s unique testing process starts by making no assumptions. We assess the mutation as standard liquid biopsy tests do, and we also confirm the DNA in the normal cells at that same point in the mutation, since this can differ greatly from person to person and lead to false readings on a liquid biopsy test.

For example, if 'Company x' determines that you have a KRAS-G12V mutation, this means they have identified a ‘V’ where they think a ‘G’ should be at the 12th position. In other words, they have assumed that your normal cells are determined to have a G amino acid at the 12th position and that, because you have a V, they assume your KRAS gene is mutated.

This is the standard approach to liquid biopsy – but, it is highly flawed and makes any data gathered, and treatment decisions based on this assumption, highly questionable. If you don’t know that the patient started with a ‘G’ to begin with, then how can you say, with confidence, when you see a ‘V’ that they have a causative mutation? Let alone design your treatment plan around that mutation?

In reality, there are numerous other base pairs at that position that will code for the same amino acid (this is referred to as redundancy in coding), and if you haven’t done proper assessment to ensure which amino acid naturally presents at that location in that patient, the fact is, your test result – and any subsequent treatment decisions you make based on that data – have the potential to be completely wrong.

We can all agree that cancer patients don’t have time for false positives and false negatives. They don’t have time for guesses and "maybes". And if you’re wanting to use targeted therapies for cancer treatment, you must know, with confidence, that the mutation you’re targeting is not just present in the patient – but actually involved in driving their cancer.

The liquid biopsy process is based on observing the base pair at the site of the mutation in both the normal and mutated copies of the gene. Therefore, it is essential that you also know for certain the base pair, at that position, in your normal gene.

Current standard liquid biopsy tests are designed with the assumption that everyone has the same starting base pair – when, in reality, there are enough different options for starting base pairs that you could easily be wrong 3 times out of 4.

So, while most liquid biopsy companies claim 90% validity, this cannot be true. The erroneous assumptions they make up front, and their lack of testing for naturally occurring mutations, make their results impossible to trust.

Would you base your cancer treatment plan on a 25% chance of being right? Or would you rather know, with 99+% confidence, that your treatment plan is targeting the right mutation, right from the start?

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Our Tests are Designed to Give You the Most Rapid and Accurate Treatment Monitoring Tool Available, Worldwide

Our unique patent-pending test measures, quantitatively, the amount of a tumor-causing mutation in the blood. Therefore, it is an excellent tool for both a) discovery and b) the most precise targeted treatment monitoring.

Liquid Biopsy Labs will ensure that you have the most accurate targets for each patient, leading to significantly higher survival rates and greatly reduced treatment side effects.

The use of our unique Liquid Biopsy test allows you to experience unheard of precision in treatment monitoring – providing cancer patients with the best possible outcome that medical science can offer today.