Performance of the Oncomine^TM Lung cfDNA Assay for Liquid Biopsy by NGS of NSCLC Patients in Routine Laboratory Practice

• Main Authors: Giuseppa De Luca, Sonia Lastraioli, Romana Conte, Marco Mora, Carlo Genova, Giovanni Rossi, Marco Tagliamento, Simona Coco, Maria Giovanna Dal Bello, Simona Zupo, Mariella Dono
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-04-01
• Series: Applied Sciences
• Subjects: circulating tumor DNA; liquid biopsy; NGS; molecular tagging technology; NSCLC; <i>EGFR</i> Thr790Met
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/8/2895

Targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) based on molecular tagging technology allowed considerable improvement in the approaches of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) analysis. Previously, we demonstrated the feasibility of the Oncomine^TM Lung cell-free DNA Assay (OLcfA) NGS panel when applied on plasma samples of post-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Here, we explored in detail the coverage metrics and variant calling of the assay and highlighted strengths and challenges by analyzing 92 plasma samples collected from a routine cohort of 76 NSCLC patients. First, performance of OLcfA was assessed using Horizon HD780 reference standards and sensitivity and specificity of 92.5% and 100% reported, respectively. The OLcfA was consequently evaluated in our plasma cohort and NGS technically successful in all 92 sequenced libraries. We demonstrated that initial cfDNA amount correlated positively with library yields (<i>p</i> < 0.0001) and sequencing performance (<i>p</i> < 0.0001). In addition, 0.1% limit of detection could be achieved even when < 10 ng cfDNA was employed. In contrast, the cfDNA amount seems to not affect the <i>EGFR</i> mutational status (<i>p</i> = 0.16). This study demonstrated an optimal performance of the OLcfA on routine plasma samples from NSCLC patients and supports its application in the liquid biopsy practice for cfDNA investigation in precision medicine laboratories.