Is a Liquid biopsy of ctDNA with PSA = 6 and 4 bone mets, useful?

[Manilo]

Hello friends

I have to pay upfront the costs but I don't know if nothing will be found in a liquid biopsy with PSA of 6.5

What is your experience with liquid biopsy?

And did anyone have a bone metastatic solid biopsy ?

Thank you 🤗🙌

[Tall_Allen]

Are the bone metastases big enough to biopsy? Most genomic tests give unactionable results.

[Manilo in reply to Tall_Allen]

Everybody says bone tissue is not usefull for DNA testing.

[Tall_Allen in reply to Manilo]

Who is "everybody"? I've never heard that and several patients I know have had it.

[Manilo in reply to Tall_Allen]

My oncologist, urologist and RO

[Tall_Allen in reply to Manilo]

That's exactly what somatic genomic tests do. Perhaps they meant that your lesions were too small to biopsy.

[tango65]

Probably no. The circulating DNA or RNA yield is usually low with few bone mets and PSA below 10.

[NanoMRI]

Regarding health coverage, several times my appeals of initial private insurance denials here in US resulted in coverage; I had successes with this in UK as well. (US Medicare did cover my GUARDANT360 - at usSPA of 0.03 and no known bone mets).

As to the value of the test for you, I suggest asking your doctor what a result of 'Not Detected' would mean to your diagnosis and treatment strategy. And also, how might a detected findings alter these?

Others disagreed with there being value to my testing - these can be found in my recent post "Experiences with GUARDANT360 liquid biopsy" (23 days ago). Just a few days ago I met with a new to me medical oncology & hematology MD to discuss my hemochromatosis, and I asked for his opinion on my having had the GUARDANT360. He was very supportive and also saw great value in the "Not Detected' findings.

[Aldo62]

I got a blood biopsy and it told me that I was not genetically predisposed to getting Prostate cancer. In the end, it didn't make a lot of difference to my treatment plan, but it's useful info for my kids, both of whom are young men now.