Heterogeneous mutation pattern in tumor tissue and circulating tumor DNA warrants parallel NGS panel testing

Liquid biopsy by genotyping circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has provided a non-invasive approach in assessing tumor genomic alterations in clinical oncology. However, emerging evidence in clinical settings has shown significant discordance in the genomic alterations between matched tumor tissue and blood ctDNA samples, and even between the same set of blood samples analyzed on different testing platforms. Thus, it is necessary to study underlying causes of discrepancies in these studies by genotyping tumor tissue and ctDNA in parallel using next generation sequencing (NGS) panels based on the same technology. Here we enrolled 56 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and evaluated tumor tissue genotyping and ctDNA based liquid biopsy by parallel NGS panel testing and compared different sample preparation conditions. Somatic mutations in plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) were detected in 63.6% patients with early-stage NSCLC and 60% patients with advanced-stage NSCLC. The overall concordance between matched formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sample and cfDNA was 54.6% in early-stage NSCLC patients and 80% in advanced-stage NSCLC patients. The positive concordance rate was 44.4% and 71.4% in early-stage and advanced-stage patients, respectively. Using fresh frozen tumor samples did not improve the overall concordance rate between matched tumor tissue and cfDNA. Processing blood samples beyond 4 h after blood draw significantly decreased the detection rate of somatic mutations in cfDNA. Thus, the concordance rate between tumor tissue-based and ctDNA-based genotyping in clinical samples can be affected by multiple pre-analytical, analytical and biologic factors. Parallel NGS panel testing on both sample types for each patient may be warranted for effective guidance of cancer targeted therapies and possible early detection of cancer. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12943-018-0875-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.