Consensus statement on circulating biomarkers for advanced prostate cancer.
Sumanasuriya, S; Omlin, AG; Armstrong, AJ; Attard, G; Chi, KN; Bevan, CL; Waugh, DJ; Ijzerman, MJ; De Laere, B; Lolkema, MP; Lorente, D ...
Published in: Journal of Clinical Oncology
299 Background: The need for validated circulating biomarkers is well recognised in advanced prostate cancer (PCa). Circulating biomarkers evaluating plasma cell-free nucleic acids and circulating tumour cells are being investigated for their clinical utility. There has been a lack of consensus with regards to analyses, reporting and clinical effectiveness of these biomarkers. A consensus meeting was held to address these issues. Methods: A multi-disciplinary panel comprising 18 international prostate cancer experts (including surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists) were consulted prior to the consensus meeting. Four key areas relating to the field of circulating biomarkers were deemed important for discussion: 1) The current utility of circulating biomarkers in 2017; 2) The clinical needs for circulating biomarkers in PCa; 3) The most pressing blood-based molecular assays required; and 4) The steps necessary for developing circulating biomarkers. Using a modified Delphi process, 50 consensus questions were pre-defined for the panel to answer by voting anonymously but publicly at the consensus meeting. Results: A consensus was declared (i.e. ≥ 75% of panellists who did not vote ‘unqualified’ or ‘abstain’ chose the same opinion) in 12/50 (24%) questions. A further 8/50 (16%) of replies were close to reaching consensus (≥ 60% of panellists choosing the same answer). The panel agreed that there is a very high and urgent unmet need for predictive biomarkers, with consensus that DNA repair biomarkers in particular are needed urgently. Metastatic PCa was identified as having the highest clinical need for development of biomarkers to measure response and as surrogate endpoints. Panellists unanimously voted that reproducibility validation studies are of paramount importance. The consensus panel also predicted that cfDNA will impact practice by 2020. Conclusions: This expert consensus identified the need for clinical trials of validated circulating biomarkers to develop predictive, response and surrogacy assays. These could have major clinical and healthcare economic implications, minimizing over-treatment and allowing the delivery of more precise patient care.