Stephen Quake, PhD, spoke to CANCER BUZZ about the application of liquid biopsies across multiple cancer stages and their potential to improve patient outcomes.
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Stephen Quake, PhD, Co-President of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network, spoke to CANCER BUZZ about the application of liquid biopsies across multiple cancer stages and their potential to improve patient outcomes, minimize financial toxicity, and create health equity through greater testing access and lower cost.
He identified trends that are shaping the future of cancer research, including the amazing developments in new cancer screens for diseases where they don't currently exist. Hear about the hydroxymethylation measurement techniques pioneered by his lab, which is the exact science now being used by many investigational multi-cancer early detection (MCED) assays to screen for cancers which don’t have guideline-approved tests, like pancreatic and ovarian cancer.
Guest:
Stephen Quake, PhD
Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics, Stanford University
Co-President, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network
“We are in the midst of a very exciting time right now. We are all still learning how good liquid biopsies can be and how to best use them, but they’re starting to get in the hands of patients through clinical trials and other approaches right now.”
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CANCER BUZZ: Welcome back to CANCER BUZZ, I'm your host Summer Johnson. On this quick episode, liquid biopsy and the potential for this noninvasive blood test to change diagnoses and treatment for patients with cancer. Dr. Stephen Quake is a professor of bioengineering and applied physics at Stanford University. He's also the Co-President of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network.
Stephen Quake, PhD: So, my research has been at the interface of physics, biology and technology development, and I began my career developing measurement tools for the life sciences, and that then evolved into using those tools to develop novel therapeutics and diagnostics.
CANCER BUZZ: Dr. Quake, today, we're talking about the potential applications of liquid biopsy across multiple cancer stages. Let's start with diagnosis.
Stephen Quake, PhD: Sure. You know, I think there's a general acceptance now, not by everywhere, by most people in the community that early detection leads to better outcomes in general, because you can treat the cancer surgically and cut it out and you don't have to get into chemotherapy and drugs that are really tough on people and have limited success rates. And so there's been a huge effort to develop new tests that will diagnose cancers earlier when they could be operated on.
CANCER BUZZ: And what about treatment?
Stephen Quake, PhD: Well, you know, again, if you can operate surgically, that's great. If you can't, there are as always, you know, an enormous amount of creativity going into develop new therapeutics to help those folks with the cancers are detected later on—much of which is driven by new biological measurement techniques, especially around developing whole organism cell atlas.
CANCER BUZZ: How does liquid biopsy have an impact on healthcare equity?
Stephen Quake, PhD: Liquid biopsy is an approach to measure molecules in your blood that will help you understand whether you might have tumors and where they might be in your body. And much of the effort is focused around nucleic acids, DNA and RNA in the blood. And there's a variety of things you can measure about those molecules that will tell you whether or not you have disease. And if so, which disease you have, it's sort of a beautiful marriage of unusual discovery and physiology with modern techniques of genomic analysis and high throughput sequencing.
CANCER BUZZ: And how soon will the technology be available to the broader oncology community?
Stephen Quake, PhD: Well, we're in the midst of a very exciting time right now. There are some tests available now with sort of limited performance and there's going to be more coming out over the next year or two. It's a super exciting time. I think we're all still learning how good these tests can be and how to best use them. But they're starting to get in the hands of patients through clinical trials and other approaches right now.
CANCER BUZZ: Is there a potential for liquid biopsy to minimize financial hardships for patients with cancer?
Stephen Quake, PhD: Well, in particular, when they replace invasive biopsies, for sure, because it's much less expensive and it's accessible to anybody wherever they are; you can draw blood wherever you happen to be in the country. And that's a great leveler and creates health equity. And of course also the earlier you detect the less expensive it's going to be to treat because you just don't have all the ‘knock on’ effects.
CANCER BUZZ: Dr. Quake, a good portion of your job is spent in the lab. Can you give us any insight about trends that are shaping the future of cancer research?
Stephen Quake, PhD: I think the earliest days of liquid biopsy people were focused on trying to detect mutations that were associated with the tumor. And there's a beautiful academic literature around that and a few tests starting to trickle out, but as the field has evolved and in part do my own research, we've discovered more sophisticated ways to measure what's going on in your body and with tumors and in particular to kind of measure the biology directly of how cell types are changing identity de-differentiating. And there's been a move from mutations towards epigenetic measurements in particular for hydroxymethylation, which really reflects dynamic tumor biology.
And that's based on, you know, work of a number of people in labs around the world. My lab contributed the first way to measure hydroxymethylation with the Liquid Biopsy and showed that you can detect different tumor types with it. And that's led to amazing research by a company I helped found called BlueStar Genomics, which is developing new cancer screens for diseases that don't currently have screens, like pancreatic cancer and ovarian cancer.
CANCER BUZZ: You can check out the show notes for links to resources about liquid biopsy. And if you're searching for more content on the latest trends in cancer care, we have a lot more coming up on CANCER BUZZ. Make sure you're following the show on your favorite podcast app, so you'll have the latest episodes delivered right to you. As soon as they're published for the CANCER BUZZ team, this is Summer Johnson.
CANCER BUZZ: CANCER BUZZ is a resource of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC).
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s)/faculty member(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position of their employer(s) or the Association of Cancer Care Centers.
July 8, 2026
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At the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting, the Louisiana Oncology Society received the ASCO Jeffrey C Ward Affiliate Advocacy Award for advancing critical advocacy priorities that have translated into meaningful legislative victories. The Iowa Oncology Society and Washington State Medical Oncology Society were also recognized for their advocacy efforts in 2025 at the meeting, receiving second place awards.
