The Use of Serial Circulating Tumor DNA to Detect Resistance Alterations in Progressive Metastatic Breast Cancer

Novel methylated biomarkers and a robust assay to detect circulating tumor DNA in metastatic breast cancer.

The ability to consistently detect cell-free tumor-specific DNA in peripheral blood of patients with metastatic breast cancer provides the opportunity to detect changes in tumor burden and to monitor response to treatment. We developed cMethDNA, a quantitative multiplexed methylation-specific PCR assay for a panel of ten genes, consisting of novel and known breast cancer hypermethylated markers...

Analysis of circulating tumor DNA to monitor metastatic breast cancer.

BACKGROUND The management of metastatic breast cancer requires monitoring of the tumor burden to determine the response to treatment, and improved biomarkers are needed. Biomarkers such as cancer antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3) and circulating tumor cells have been widely studied. However, circulating cell-free DNA carrying tumor-specific alterations (circulating tumor DNA) has not been extensively inve...

Circulating tumor DNA to monitor metastatic breast cancer.

Can circulating tumor cells predict resistance in metastatic breast cancer?

Circulating tumor cell (CTC) enumeration provides prognostic but not predictive information for chemotherapy in metastatic breast cancer. Because CTC measurement is reproducible and allows molecular profiling, an assay to assess endocrine resistance was developed. Whether this CTC-based assay can be used to reliably select endocrine therapy must be tested.

Circulating tumor DNA to monitor treatment response and detect acquired resistance in patients with metastatic melanoma

Repeat tumor biopsies to study genomic changes during therapy are difficult, invasive and data are confounded by tumoral heterogeneity. The analysis of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) can provide a non-invasive approach to assess prognosis and the genetic evolution of tumors in response to therapy. Mutation-specific droplet digital PCR was used to measure plasma concentrations of oncogenic BRAF a...