Cancer Insights Session

Multianalyte Studies of Liquid Biopsies

Are you working with cell-free DNA, extracellular vesicles or circulating tumor cells (CTCs)? Have you ever asked yourself: Do we miss (or even waste) genomic and transcriptomic information by considering only one analyte? How would the picture change if all analytes could be investigated from the same sample?

In the ELIMA (Evaluation of multiple Liquid biopsy analytes In Metastatic breast cancer patients All from one blood sample) study, Sabine Kasimir-Bauer and Corinna Keup (University Hospital Essen, Germany) approached this challenge, established workflows and compared and analyzed RNA profiles of circulating tumor cells and extracellular vesicles, performed mutational analysis of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from naïve or CTC-depleted plasma and more.

This Cancer Insights session features Science Talks with Sabine Kasimir-Bauer, Corinna Keup and an expert round with QIAGEN scientists. You can download your own poster guide to get started with Multianalyte Liquid Biopsies and access publications for further reading.

Listen to the Science talk with Sabine Kasimir-Bauer, University Hospital Essen, joined by Siegfried Hauch, Constanze Kindler and Markus Sprenger-Haussels

Molecular analysis research of circulating tumor cells, extracellular vesicles and nucleic acids in liquid biopsies

The use of biological fluids such as blood as a non-invasive source of cellular and nucleic acid biomarkers would be an ideal "surrogate tissue" to identify and monitor prognostic and predictive factors that will help in selecting the optimal therapeutic strategy for each individual patient. Sabine Kasimir-Bauer and her team approached this challenge and compared and analyzed, all from one blood sample, RNA profiles enclosed in circulating tumor cells or extracellular vesicles and performed mutational analysis of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in plasma samples (next-generation sequencing) in the follow up of the disease to get insights into their feasibility for therapy stratification and to predict therapeutic options.

mRNA profiling of matched CTCs and EVs: an example for synergy

The analysis of RNA enclosed in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) or extracellular vesicles (EVs) may be sensitive enough to detect disease progression earlier than contemporary visual staging methods. Corinna Keup talks about her research study, comparing RNA profiles of CTCs and extracellular vesicles (EVs) in metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients to get insights about their feasibility for therapy stratification.

Corinna Keup, University Hospital Essen, joined by Siegfried Hauch, Constanze Kindler and Martin Schlumpberger

Corinna Keup joined by Siegfried Hauch and Markus Storbeck

ccfDNA targeted deep sequencing: new insights into clinical relevance of liquid biopsies

Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is described to mirror intra-tumoral heterogeneity and gives insights about clonal evolution for improved therapeutic decisions. Corinna Keup discusses targeted deep sequencing of cfDNA of a hormone receptorpositive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC) cohort to examine the prevalence and relevance of variants and dynamics under treatment. Unique molecular identifiers enable the identification of true positive mutations in cfDNA.

ccfDNA variants and matched CTC mRNA profiles: is that possible from one blood tube?

Liquid biopsy analytes such as cfDNA and CTCs are considered to give additive information and blood specimens are limited. Isolation of cfDNA and CTC in an “all from one tube” format is desired. Corinna Keup investigated whether cfDNA variant sequencing from CTC-depleted blood impacts the results compared to cfDNA variant sequencing from matched whole blood and presents a feasible workflow for CTC and ctDNA evaluation for expression and mutation analysis from the same blood sample.

Corinna Keup joined by Siegfried Hauch, Sabine Kasimir-Bauer, Markus Storbeck and Constanze Kindler

Siegfried Hauch (Chair) joined by Ioanna Andreou, Anna Babayan, Eric Lader, Jonathan Shaffer and Markus Storbeck

QIAGEN expert web talk

The value of multianalyte approaches in liquid biopsy analysis

Scientists from QIAGEN look at each part of the workflow for analyzing extracellular vesicles, circulating tumor cells and cfDNA in parallel, and the tools we can use for further analysis of the data. This will include targeted DNA sequencing using UMIs, bioinformatics solutions, targeted methylated-DNA sequencing, miRNA sequencing and simultaneous DNA and RNA profiling by NGS.

Our speakers

Sabine Kasimir-Bauer

Dr. Sabine Kasimir-Bauer is an Associate Professor at the University Hospital of Essen, Germany, where she has held several positions since joining in 1993. She her received Ph.D. in 1993 from the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Bochum, Germany. Dr Kasimir-Bauer’s ongoing studies include expression profiling of CTCs including single cell analysis, compared with the expression on the primary tumor as well as the metastases to evaluate patients for targeted therapies. Besides CTC analysis in blood, the group focusses on circulating extracellular vesicles and circulating, cell-free DNA applying the use of unique molecular identifiers as well as next-generation sequencing.
Siegfried Hauch

Dr. Siegfried Hauch joined QIAGEN in 2001 where he has held several positions in Marketing and R&D for the AdnaTest product portfolio. He studied biology at the Albert Einstein University in Ulm and received his Ph.D. in 1997 in plant physiology and molecular biology at the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen. Siegfried is Director of CTC Research and Development at QIAGEN in Hilden, Germany.
Constanze Kindler

Dr. Constanze Kindler joined QIAGEN in Hilden, Germany in 1993, where she held various positions in Sales and Global Marketing. She received her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Münster in 1993. Constanze is currently an Associate Director, Global Product Management, Sample Technologies with a focus on liquid biopsy applications.
Corinna Keup

Dr. Corinna Keup is a researcher at the University Hospital of Essen, Germany, where she completed her doctoral thesis on the comprehensive molecular characterization of circulating tumor cells extracellular vesicles and cell-free DNA as matched multi-parametric liquid biopsy for therapy management in metastatic breast cancer patients. She studied Biochemistry at the Heinrich-Heinn University in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Markus Sprenger-Haussels

Dr. Markus Sprenger-Haussels joined QIAGEN as a laboratory manager in 1999. Since then, he has held various positions within the R&D organization in the Business Areas Molecular Diagnostics and Life Sciences with increasing responsibilities and a focus on liquid biopsy application development. Today he is responsible for planning and execution of the Sample Technology strategy within QIAGEN’s Life Science Business Area and leading the product development department. He studied biology at the University of Cologne, and completed his PhD in Genetics and held post-doctoral positions at Max-Planck Institutes in Cologne and Dortmund, Germany.
Martin Schlumpberger

Martin Schlumpberger is Director, Product Development at QIAGEN focusing on exosomes and circulating, cell-free nucleic acid isolation. Before his current role, he successfully led the development of various RNA isolation products at QIAGEN, including RNeasy FFPE, RNeasy Plus, AllPrep DNA/RNA, miRNeasy and QIAsymphony RNA kits. Prior to joining QIAGEN, Martin worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at UCSF, USA. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry, with a strong focus on molecular biology and yeast genetics, from the University of Stuttgart, Germany.
Markus Storbeck

Dr. Markus Storbeck joined QIAGEN in Hilden, Germany in 2017. In his current position as a Scientist in NGS Technology Development, he works on the development of NGS library preparation workflows for Illumina and Ion Torrent sequencing platforms as well as target enrichment technologies. Prior to working for QIAGEN, Markus worked as a post-doc at the Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital of Cologne on the discovery of variants causing rare inherited disease. Markus completed his Ph.D. on mRNA splicing factors in neuromuscular and neurodegenerative disease in 2014.