The evolving role of liquid biopsy in lung cancer

•Liquid biopsy has revolutionized the management of cancer patients.•In particular, liquid biopsy-based testing has proven to be highly beneficial for identifying actionable cancer markers, especially when solid tissue biopsies are insufficient or unattainable.•Beyond the predictive role, liquid biopsy may be a useful tool for comprehensive tumor genotyping, identification of emergent resistance mechanisms, monitoring of minimal residual disease, early detection, and cancer interception.•The application of next generation sequencing to liquid biopsy has led to the “quantum leap” of predictive molecular pathology.