Podcasts: Precision Medicine

The liquid biopsy has rapidly emerged as a method to minimize the amount of tissue needed for testing, making it a less invasive and safer alternative to more traditional procedures. As it continues to evolve, liquid biopsies offer exciting new options in the practice of pathology. In this episode, Maria Arcila, MD, FCAP, and JinJuan Yao, MD, FCAP, discuss the development of this new diagnostic tool.

r. Yao has written an article about how using next-generation sequencing techniques allows more accurate initial diagnosis, as well as high sensitivity for detecting minimal residual disease and therefore improving post-treatment outcomes, as she’ll explain in this CAPcast interview.

Some biomarkers are already covered in what has become routine testing in many laboratories, affording pathologists an opportunity to play a central role in developing and implementing these biomarkers in ways to improve patient care, explains Eric Walk, MD, FCAP, Chief Medical & Scientific Officer and Senior VP of Medical & Scientific Affairs with Roche Diagnostics, in this CAPcast.

The advent of new molecularly targeted treatment strategies for patients with advanced colorectal cancer places anatomic and molecular pathologists as key players in the delivery of care for this large patient population. Specifically, advanced colorectal cancer encompasses patients presenting with Stage IV cancer, or those who experience a cancer recurrence, explains Dr. Joseph Willis in a new CAP.org article, 'Testing of Specimens From Patients With Advanced Colorectal Carcinoma.'