TY - JOUR T1 - Predictive molecular pathology in the time of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Europe JF - Journal of Clinical Pathology JO - J Clin Pathol SP - 391 LP - 395 DO - 10.1136/jclinpath-2020-206957 VL - 74 IS - 6 AU - Umberto Malapelle AU - Pasquale Pisapia AU - Antonino Iaccarino AU - Massimo Barberis AU - Claudio Bellevicine AU - Hans Brunnström AU - Dario de Biase AU - Giovanna De Maglio AU - Kajsa Ericson Lindquist AU - Matteo Fassan AU - Gabriella Fontanini AU - Elisa Gruppioni AU - Paul Hofman AU - Sabine Merkelbach-Bruse AU - Miguel A Molina Vila AU - Anaïs Pujals AU - Ida Rapa AU - Luisella Righi AU - Rafael Rosell AU - Oliver Schildgen AU - Verena Schildgen AU - Fernando C Schmitt AU - Giovanni Tallini AU - Sara Vander Borght AU - Elena Vigliar AU - Marco Volante AU - Svenja Wagener-Ryczek AU - Birgit Weynand AU - Giancarlo Troncone Y1 - 2021/06/01 UR - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/74/6/391.abstract N2 - Aims Lung cancer predictive biomarker testing is essential to select advanced-stage patients for targeted treatments and should be carried out without delays even during health emergencies, such as the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.Methods Fifteen molecular laboratories from seven different European countries compared 4 weeks of national lockdown to a corresponding period in 2019, in terms of tissue and/or plasma-based molecular test workload, analytical platforms adopted, number of cases undergoing programmed death-ligand1 (PD-L1) expression assessment and DNA-based molecular tests turnaround time.Results In most laboratories (80.0%), tissue-based molecular test workload was reduced. In 40.0% of laboratories (6/15), the decrease was >25%, and in one, reduction was as high as 80.0%. In this instance, a concomitant increase in liquid biopsy was reported (60.0%). Remarkably, in 33.3% of the laboratories, real-time PCR (RT-PCR)-based methodologies increased, whereas highly multiplexing assays approaches decreased. Most laboratories (88.9%) did not report significant variations in PD-L1 volume testing.Conclusions The workload of molecular testing for patients with advanced-stage lung cancer during the lockdown showed little variations. Local strategies to overcome health emergency-related issues included the preference for RT-PCR tissue-based testing methodologies and, occasionally, for liquid biopsy.All data relevant to the study are included in the article. ER -