Measurable Residual Disease (MRD) has emerged as standard care for detecting previously undetectable amounts of hematological cancer cells that can lead to recurrence. Such testing is especially important since these cancer cells are often far less responsive to treatment. In other cases, the ability to confirm the lack of residual cancer cells has prevented overtreatment.
As a prognostic and monitoring tool, MRD has seen slower inroads in the solid tumor field, where disease markers exist at even lower levels in the blood than cancers like leukemia. However, the application of circulating tumor DNA analysis is rapidly growing, as advanced methods such as Droplet Digital™ PCR (ddPCR™) achieve new levels of sensitivity (0.1% or better) and enable absolute quantitation of once-undetectable levels of disease biomarkers.
The new QX600™ Droplet Digital™ PCR System from Bio-Rad Laboratories builds on the unmatched performance of this established technology. Designed for investigators who need to quantify multiple targets with high accuracy and reproducibility, the QX600™ Droplet Digital™ PCR enables ultra-sensitive detection and quantification of rare DNA or RNA targets and can deliver same-day results with full-featured, user-friendly software. The system boasts six-color detection capable of quantifying 12 targets per well, a streamlined workflow, and powerful data analysis. It was also designed with the same droplet generation and processing protocols as the QX200™ system—enabling thousands of existing customers to easily adopt its advanced multiplexing capabilities.
Launched in late 2022, the QX600™ Droplet Digital™ PCR System is already being used by many institutions and companies for ctDNA analysis. Gary Pestano, Ph.D., Chief Development Officer at cancer diagnostics firm Biodesix, said Biodesix plans to use QX600™ Droplet Digital™ PCR System for rare variant detection as a method of analyzing multiple mutations for MRD assays and therapeutic response testing for blood-based oncology offerings. “We also expect that this will drive the development of novel, multiplexed assays that were not possible before,” he added.
The QX600 ddPCR System builds on Bio-Rad’s QX200 system, a proven workhorse cited in over 8,300 publications, with over 1,000 of those focused on oncology. As highlighted above, this system is the premier solution for ctDNA analysis, but is perfect for ultra-precise gene expression investigation, and biopharma biomarker research. It’s also often used for next-generation sequencing (NGS) orthogonal validation as well as wastewater and food industry testing.