7:30 am Registration & Morning Networking Coffee
8:20 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
Illuminating the Triumphs of Liquid Biopsy & Future Directions to Empower Precision Oncology
8:30 am Harnessing Liquid Biopsies to Transform Cancer Treatment Selection, Monitoring & Early Detection & Empower Precision Treatments
Synopsis
- Reviewing current and future liquid biopsy assay use in cancer care, including early detection and molecular residual disease
- Discussing recent collaborative frameworks and standards for best practices in liquid biopsy assay validation
- Enabling broad access to liquid biopsy assays and global harmonization of regulatory requirements
- Looking at what’s on the horizon: emerging trends in liquid biopsy assay development
9:00 am Speaker to be Confirmed: Foundation Medicine
Synopsis
Introducing an Improved ctDNA Tumor Fraction Method to Add Value in Translational Research, Clinical Trials & CDx Development
- Discussion on the value of ctDNA monitoring for research and clinical trial programs, including both early- and late-stage disease for MRD and treatment response
- Confidence in negative results from a liquid biopsy test, now possible for wild-type biomarkers in trial enrollment
- New data on the value of ctDNA tumor fraction in lung, breast, bladder, and kidney cancers
9:30 am Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) Panel Discussion: Creating Awareness Amongst Decision-Makers on Local & Global Disparities in Liquid Biopsy Research & Practice to Shape an Inclusive Future for Understudied Diseases
Synopsis
- How is the potential and utilization of liquid biopsies for new indications benefitting patients from diverse backgrounds?
- Why are certain populations underrepresented in studies harnessing liquid biopsy?
- What is being done to overcome the historical disparities and inequalities in liquid biopsy trials?
- How can the ED&I challenges be overcome by global and cross-sector stakeholder collaboration for liquid biopsy research?
10:00 am Guardant
10:30 am Morning Break & Speed Networking
Track A : Early Translation
Chair: Aarti Tarkar, Associate Director, Experimental Medicine Unit, GSK
Identifying Signatures & Predictive Biomarkers Using Ultrasensitive Detection for Enhanced Diagnosis & Prognosiser
11:30 am Exploring TGF-β Signature as Predictive Biomarkers for Immunotherapy for Cancer Patients
Synopsis
• Exploring the key challenges in identifying biomarkers, touching on sensitivity and standardization
• Discussing best-in-practice methods of biomarker selection to capture biomarkers at an extremely sensitive level
• Reviewing successful case studies of biomarker selection
12:00 pm Bio-techne
12:30 pm New Paradigm in Liquid Biopsy: In Vivo Early Diagnosis of Multiple Diseases by Detection of Circulating Markers Directly in the Patient’s Bloodstream with Cytophone
Synopsis
- Defining a new strategy for early cancer diagnosis with photoacoustic detection of rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in a large blood volume (up to 1 L) with no blood draw.
- Clinical validation of 1000-fold sensitivity improvement down to 1 CTC/L by precise detection of CTCs in patients with stage I-II melanoma.
- Identification of single and clustered CTCs, cancer-induced clots, and CTC–clot emboli.
- Theranostics platform for real-time monitoring of personalized laser-mediated anti-CTC and anticoagulant therapy efficiency to reduce the risk of metastasis and stroke.
- Approaches for expanding to screening, minimal residual disease, recurrence, multiple cancers, infection complications, and cardiovascular disorders (e.g., thrombosis and pulmonary embolism).
- Solving challenges in standardization, marker variability, motion, and skin pigmentation.
Track B : Clinical Development & Commercialization
Chair: Pashtoon Kasi, Director, Colon Cancer & Precision Medicine Research, Weill Cornell Medicine
Leveraging Combination Therapies to Predict Response for Optimized Treatment Regimens
11:30 am Unveiling the Impact of Liquid Biopsy Combination Therapies on Resistance to Cancer Treatments to Aid the Selection of Combination Regimens with Best-In-Class Therapies
Synopsis
- Characterization of resistance alterations obtained from targeted therapy
- Using liquid biopsies to study clonal and sub-clonal evolution
- Identify biomarkers that predict synergy (one therapy affecting the other), to aid the selection of optimal combination regimens
12:00 pm Angle
12:30 pm Building a ctDNA-Based Model to Predict Survival & Outperform Radiographic Imaging for Differentiating between Chemo-Immunotherapy Combinations in Early Phase Clinical Trials
Synopsis
• Assessing ctDNA across longitudinal time points in a randomized Ph III study comparing chemotherapy-immunotherapy combinations
• Using machine learning in a training/testing framework to jointly model multiple ctDNA metrics to predict overall survival
• Validating model utility for identifying high-risk patients in an external validation cohort with a different ctDNA assay
• Demonstrating model utility in clinical drug development as an early endpoint to detect differences in overall survival between treatment arms
1:00 pm Lunch & Networking Break
Spearheading Machine Learning & Multiplexing to Evaluate Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) & Rare Cancers for Early Disease Detection
2:30 pm What is the Future of Multiplexed Precision Therapy Including Trogocytosed Immune Cells?
Synopsis
• How the evaluation of minimal residual disease may influence a medical decision in hematological malignancies?
• Place of trogocytosed NK in the diagnosis and follow-up of rare malignant lymphomas
3:00 pm Exploring the Potential of Liquid Biopsy to Make a Machine Leaning Approach to Target Homologous Recombination Deficiencies in B-Cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas with the Novel Anti-Tumor Small Molecule LP-284
Synopsis
• Investigating the utility of liquid biopsy techniques in identifying Homologous Recombination Deficiencies (HRD) in B-Cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas as a non-invasive diagnostic approach
• Leveraging machine learning algorithms to analyze liquid biopsy data for the personalized targeting of HRD-positive B-Cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma patients with the novel anti-tumor small molecule LP-284
• Combining liquid biopsy, machine learning, and LP-284 to advance precision medicine by tailoring therapeutic strategies for improved outcomes in B-Cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma patients with HRD
Benchmarking Surrogate Endpoints in Phase I-III Clinical Trials to Assess Molecular Response & Enhance Clinical Utility
2:30 pm Incorporating Robust Endpoints in Clinical Trials through Careful Trial Design for Treatment Response Assessment
Synopsis
• Addressing phase I-III design strategy that integrates liquid biopsy
• Discussing the clinical utility of different endpoints in trials
• Understanding how endpoints enable patient stratification
• Examining the impact of having robust endpoints on treatment response options and decisions
3:00 pm Utility & Shortcomings of Leveraging ctDNA to Assess Molecular Patterns of Responders in an Early Prostate Cancer Clinical Trial
Synopsis
• Advantages of utilizing liquid biopsy for molecular profiling
• Challenges in assessing specific classes of gene alterations
• Current unmet needs in a nascent technology
3:30 pm Afternoon Networking Break
3:45 pm
Bridging Discovery & Translation for Clinical Biomarker Validation to Drive Wide-Spread Clinical Implementation
4:30 pm Tempus
5:00 pm Linking Biomarker Discovery & Clinical Validation to Verify Biomarker Candidates for Cost-Effective Clinical Implementation
Synopsis
- How to reduce the mismatch between the large number of biomarker candidates and the paucity of reliable assays and validation studies?
- What are the requirements for liquid biopsies to verify biomarkers before moving into the clinic?
- What new technologies and systems have been proposed and validated to verify biomarker candidates?