Limitations
lung cancer, cancers, NSCLC
LUNG CANCER, CANCERS, MALIGNANT NEOPLASMS, NSCLC
Our study has limitations, including its single-group prospective design and the fact that it was conducted at a single institution. Despite expert selection of patients with radiologic evidence of advanced lung cancer by a multidisciplinary team, only 70% of patients had biopsy-proven advanced NSCLC, while 30% had other diagnoses or no malignant neoplasms. These results reinforce the need for tissue biopsy for lung cancer diagnosis and pathologic subtyping: plasma first does not mean plasma only.Finally, despite the known benefits of liquid biopsy, cost is a potential barrier limiting its implementation. Although 71% of patients in our study had advanced NSCLC, this percentage will vary across geographic regions. Justifying the cost of liquid biopsy for patients without NSCLC may be challenging, although results were potentially informative for some patients with a diagnosis of other cancers. In a cost-effectiveness analysis by Ezeife et al,