Targeted Sequencing Analysis of Matched Cell-Free DNA and White Blood Cells: A Facile Method for Detection of Residual Disease in Gastric Cancer

摘要

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most diagnosed cancers in the world and is mainly cured by surgical resection. However, a large proportion of patients still presents with microscopic residual disease after surgical resection. Patients with microscopic residual disease can be offered appropriate treatment to improve their long-term survival, but for such, it is imperative to timely identify those with residual disease after surgery. Unfortunately, the traditional detection methods for residual disease have poor sensitivity. Recently, with the development of liquid biopsy technology, circulating tumor-derived deoxyribonucleic acid (ctDNA) detection has shown great promise in bringing new hope for increasing the detection rate of microscopic residual disease. In a study recently published inNature Communications, Leal et al developed a novel liquid biopsy strategy to distinguish tumor-specific ctDNA alterations from cell-free DNA variants associated with clonal hematopoiesis and evaluated the utility of ctDNA as a biomarker for predicting the prognosis of postoperative GC patients.