Blood-Derived Liquid Biopsies Using Foundation One® Liquid CDx for Children and Adolescents with High-Risk Malignancies: A Monocentric Experience

Abstract

Precision oncology requires tumor molecular profiling to identify actionable targets. Tumor biopsies are considered as the gold standard, but their indications are limited by the burden of procedures in children. Blood-derived liquid biopsy (LB) is a potential alternative that is not yet documented in real-world settings, especially in pediatric oncology. We performed a retrospective analysis of children and teenagers with a relapsing or refractory disease, upon whom LB was performed using the Foundation One® liquid CDx from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021 in a single center. Forty-five patients (27 boys) were included, with a median age of 9 years of age (range: 1.5–17 years old). Underlying malignancies were neuroblastoma (12 patients), bone sarcoma (12), soft tissue sarcoma (9), brain tumors (7), and miscellaneous tumors (5). Forty-three patients had metastatic disease. Six patients had more than one biopsy because of a failure in first LB. Median time to obtain results was 13 days. Overall, analysis was successful for 33/45 patients. Eight patients did not present any molecular abnormalities. Molecular alterations were identified in 25 samples with a mean of 2.1 alterations per sample. The most common alterations concerned TP53 (7 pts), EWS-FLI1 (5), ALK (3), MYC (3), and CREBBP (2). TMB was low in all cases. Six patients received treatment based on the results from LB analysis and all were treated off-trial. Three additional patients were included in early phase clinical trials. Mean duration of treatment was 85 days, with one patient with stable disease after eight months. Molecular profiling using Foundation One® Liquid CDx was feasible in pediatric patients with high-risk solid tumors and lead to identification of targetable mutations in a subset of patients.