Assessing the utility of liquid biopsy for detecting actionable genetic mutations among indigenous Ghanaian women with metastatic breast cancer.

Authors

Emmanuella Amoako

Emmanuella Faith Amoako

Yemaachi Biotech, Accra, Ghana

Emmanuella Faith Amoako , Emmanuel Owusu Ofori , Patrick Kafui Akakpo , Luke Adagrah Aniakwo , Bashiru Babatunde Jimah , Kofi Ulzen-Appiah , Harry Akligoh , Barikisu Anna Ibrahim , Randy Tackie , Aida Manu , Lily Paemka , Elena Yong , Nicole Lim , David Xia-Zhu , James Soo , Lauren Delgado , Jack Challis , Min-Han Tan , Ganiyu A. Rahman , Yaw Bediako

Organizations

Yemaachi Biotech, Accra, Ghana, Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Cape Coast, Ghana, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana, Lucence Diagnostics, Singapore, Singapore, Lucence Health, Palo Alto, CA

Research Funding

Pharmaceutical/Biotech Company
Yemaachi Biotech, Lucence Health

Background: Breast cancer is the leading cancer diagnosis in women worldwide, and the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in Ghanaian women. Up to 70% of breast cancer diagnoses in Ghanaian women are advanced-stage, leading to fewer opportunities for early intervention. Late presentation of breast cancer may be attributed to lack of comprehensive screening programs, among other factors. Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS)-based liquid biopsy of circulating free DNA (cfDNA) is non-invasive and been demonstrated to support diagnosis, monitoring and treatment selection in cancer. Unfortunately, people of African ancestry are under-represented in evaluations of this technology and little is known about the feasibility of such approaches in low-resource settings. Methods: The AMBER-01 study recruited 20 newly diagnosed, histologically confirmed, treatment-naive women with metastatic breast cancer at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. Testing was conducted at CAP and CLIA accredited laboratories (Lucence, Palo Alto; Singapore). Tissue NGS and cfDNA liquid biopsy analysis was ordered on a total of 20 patients following tissue quality analysis outcomes. All 20/20 (100%) liquid biopsy samples were acceptable for analysis, whereas only 6/20 (30%) passed QC for tissue NGS testing. cfDNA liquid biopsy and tissue NGS analyses were performed using Lucence LiquidHALLMARK and Tissue500 technology, respectively. Results: Liquid biopsy detected 42 cfDNA mutations in 17/20 patients. Of the 17 patients found to have mutations on liquid biopsy, 3 (17.6%) patients had mutations associated with African ancestry, including BRCA K719E, ARAF S262I and GATA3 G125dup. Eight actionable mutations specific to breast cancer were found in 7/17 (41.2%) patients while actionable mutations non-specific to breast cancer were detected in 12/17 (70.6%) patients. Tissue biopsy analysis detected mutations in all 6 patients tested, with 3/6 (50%) patients presenting actionable mutations specific to breast cancer. Of the 20 patients recruited, liquid biopsy was able to identify actionable treatments for 7 patients, while tissue was only able to identify actionable treatment for 3 patients. Of the 6 patients with matched liquid and tissue results, liquid biopsy detected additional mutations in 3 (50%) patients that were not detected by tissue analysis including: BRCA2 Q1379E, GNAQ Q176*, and a low Microsatellite Instability (MSI) reported as stable in tissue. Conclusions: Liquid biopsy detected multiple actionable variants in Ghanaian women with breast cancer that a tissue-only workflow missed. cfDNA analysis featured less variations in sample preparation which is a key consideration in resource-limited settings. Further work will optimize NGS panels to account for novel ancestry specific variants. Liquid biopsy presents a great opportunity to improve cancer care in Africa.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2023 ASCO Annual Meeting

Session Type

Publication Only

Session Title

Publication Only: Breast Cancer—Metastatic

Track

Breast Cancer

Sub Track

Biologic Correlates

Citation

J Clin Oncol 41, 2023 (suppl 16; abstr e13017)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2023.41.16_suppl.e13017

Abstract #

e13017

Abstract Disclosures

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