Aqueous humour can be used as a liquid biopsy for diagnosis, prognosis and objective monitoring of treatment response in cases of retinoblastoma, a United States symposium has been told.
Dr Jesse Berry, presenting to the Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium, said the aqueous can reveal things you can’t see.
Dr Berry said tumour DNA from the retinoblastoma that is forming in the back of the eye comes forward into the aqueous humour.
“Retinoblastoma is rare among tumours in that it cannot be biopsied,” Dr Berry said. “Using the aqueous humor as a liquid biopsy overcomes this contraindication for this tumour and allows us to get molecular information about the tumour at diagnosis and during treatment.”
She said retinoblastoma can form in each eye, and the aqueous humour is specific to each eye. “
An objective molecular biomarker is better (for real-time monitoring) than us just looking in the eye,” she said.
