In a Cancer Research UK funded study, scientists from the Francis Crick Institute, UCL, UCLH and Personalis have found that a test for detecting circulating tumor DNA can help in predicting lung cancer outcome. The research is published in Nature Medicine and the scientists have worked with Personalis to test NeXT Personal to detecting very small amounts of ctDNA. CtDNA is circulating tumor DNA and this is fragments of DNA released into the blood by tumors.
The team applied the platform to blood plasma samples from 171 people with early stage lung cancer in the TRACERx cohort. They found that people with low level of ctDNA before surgery were less likely to relapse as compared to people with high level of ctDNA.
James Black, postdoctoral clinical fellow at the Francis Crick Institute and the CRUK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence at UCL, said: “We’ve shown that the presence or absence of tumor DNA in the blood was strongly predictive of prognosis. ctDNA testing, especially using ultrasensitive platforms, could help clinicians make more informed decisions about treatment and give patients a more accurate idea of how their disease might progress. More research to validate these tests will help to get them on the agenda for regular clinical use.”
In this test, the high sensitivity implies that even the small amounts of ctDNA could be detected. This test will next be assessed on samples from patients that have undergone surgery. It will evaluate if the presence of ctDNA can be used to reduce risk of relapse among lung cancer patients.
Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers but is hard to treat with a high relapse rate. Using sensitive ctDNA tests, one hopes to maximize the clinical benefits and minimize unnecessary treatment for individual patients. Though more research is required but this study gives a hope that treatment can be tailored to lung cancer patients.
The information shared in this blog is for educational purposes only.
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