Biography
Dr. Liu most recently served as professor of oncology and chair of research in the Department of Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. In her role at Mayo, she also held a dual appointment in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and served as co-leader of the Genomics in Action Strategic Priority for the Center of Individualized Medicine. Dr. Liu brings a wealth of experience in developing blood-based biomarkers to predict treatment benefit and outcomes in solid tumors and in developing novel therapeutics to improve survival, with a particular focus in breast cancer. She chaired the Circulating Biomarker Working Group of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. She also co-chaired the Correlative Science Working Group and led several multi-institutional clinical trials through the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium.
The analysis of blood for circulating tumor cells (CTC), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), extracellular vesicles, or more recently, tumor-educated platelets has opened new avenues for cancer diagnostics, including early detection of tumors, improved risk assessment and staging, as well as early detection of relapse to improve patient care. The track will introduce the up-to-date technologies used in liquid biopsy and review the clinical utilities in cancer screening, detection of minimal residual diseases, selection of molecular-targeted drugs, as well as monitoring of treatment responsiveness.
Sessions: