scholarly journals Molecular characterisation of longitudinally collected circulating cell-free DNA in HPV+ve and HPV-ve oropharyngeal cancer

Author(s):  
John P Thomson ◽  
Sophie J Warlow ◽  
Martyna Adamowicz ◽  
Helen Thain ◽  
Kate Cuschieri ◽  
...  

Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is an increasing global health problem and is divided into two types dependent on association with human papillomavirus (HPV), with a more favourable prognosis in virus-associated tumours. Current methods of establishing viral aetiology, assessing response to therapy and clinical monitoring rest on tissue biopsy, clinical examination and post-treatment imaging. However, tissue biopsy is invasive and carries significant risk of morbidity, and post-treatment scans are frequently indeterminate. Analysis of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from the circulation provides a minimally invasive method for detecting and monitoring cancer-derived DNA fragments, with the potential for enhancing clinical care. Through the longitudinal collection of 166 blood samples in 67 OPSCC patients we evaluate the utility of three cfDNA analysis methods: droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) and fragment size analysis in both HPV+ve and HPV-ve disease, and ultra-deep sequencing in patients with HPV-ve disease. We show that ddPCR analysis of cfDNA for five HPV types (16, 18, 31, 33 & 35) is strongly concordant with existing clinical assays (p16 immunohistochemistry (IHC) and quantitative PCR analysis of solid tumour tissue) and that cfDNA fragment size was reduced in OPSCC patients compared to healthy controls. Sequential ddPCR measurements of cfDNA HPV copy number showed a decrease to undetectable levels in all 30 HPV+ve patients in at least one of their post-treatment samples and a corresponding increase in cfDNA fragment size in patients who had a complete response to chemoradiotherapy. In two HPV+ve patients, clinical decision-making based on HPV ddPCR of cfDNA may have led to earlier detection of relapse in one patient or avoided surgical exploration in a second patient, which led to resection of tissue that did not harbour malignancy. In HPV-ve disease, ultra-deep sequencing identified tumour-derived somatic mutations of circulating cfDNA in genes such as TP53 and members of the ERBB family that are potential markers of therapeutic responsiveness and patient prognosis. Together our data suggest that analysis of circulating cfDNA can enhance current clinical strategies for assessing therapeutic response and disease monitoring in both HPV+ve and HPV-ve OPSCC.

Author(s):  
Suman Kumar Ray ◽  
Sukhes Mukherjee

: Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is present in numerous body fluids in addition to initiates generally from blood cells. It is undoubtedly the utmost promising tool among all components of liquid biopsy. Liquid biopsy is a specialized method investigating the nonsolid biological tissue by revealing of circulating cells, cell free DNA etc. that enter body fluids. Since, cancer cells disengage from compact tumors circulate in peripheral blood, evaluating blood of cancer patients holds the opportunities for capture and molecular level analysis of various tumor-derived constituents. Cell free DNA samples can deliver a significant perceptions into oncology, for instance tumor heterogeneity, instantaneous tumor development, response to therapy and treatment, comprising immunotherapy and mechanisms of cancer metastasis. Malignant growth at any phase can outhouse tumor cells in addition to fragments of neoplasticity causing DNA into circulatory system giving noble sign of mutation in the tumor at sampling time. Liquid biopsy distinguishes diverse blood based evolving biomarkers comprising circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) or cfDNA, circulating RNA (cfRNA) and exosomes. Cell free DNA are little DNA fragments found circulating in plasma or serum, just as other fluids present in our body. Cell free DNA involves primarily double stranded nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA, present both on a surface level and in the lumen of vesicles. The probable origins of the tumor-inferred portion of cfDNA are apoptosis or tumor necrosis, lysis of CTCs or release of DNA from the tumor cells into circulation. The evolution of innovations, refinement and improvement in therapeutics for determination of cfDNA fragment size and its distribution provide significant information related with pathological conditions of the cell, thus emerging as promising indicator for clinical output in medical biotechnology.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. ii13-ii14
Author(s):  
Alexandra Miller ◽  
Luca Szalontay ◽  
Hamza Ahmad ◽  
Nancy Bouvier ◽  
Irene Rodriguez-Sanchez ◽  
...  

Abstract Pediatric CNS tumors remain the leading cause of cancer-related death in children and adolescents. Safe sampling of tumor tissue for diagnostic purposes may be difficult if not impossible. Detection of minimal residual or recurrent disease prior to definitive clinical or radiographic progression may allow earlier initiation of novel therapies and ultimately improve overall survival. Given the rarity of serial sampling of tumor tissue, our understanding of molecular evolution in response to therapy remains limited. Recent technological advances have led to the development of “liquid biopsy” assays, which detect cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or other bodily fluids. Here, we report our initial clinical experience with the recently established MSK Kids pediatric neuro-oncology liquid-biopsy program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) using MSK-IMPACT, which is clinically validated by the New York State Department of Health for CSF cell-free DNA (cfDNA)vprofiling. All CSF samples were collected as part of clinical care, and results reported to both clinicians and patients/families. Samples from 29 unique patients were sequenced. Histopathology included high-grade glioma (5); low-grade glioma (2); medulloblastoma (8); pineoblastoma (3); retinoblastoma (4); other (7). CSF cfDNA could be detected in 18/42 samples (43%) and 12/29 patients (34%). CSF cfDNA was more commonly detected in higher-grade, disseminated tumors such as high-grade glioma (60%), medulloblastoma (38%), and pineoblastoma (100%). Low-grade lesions without leptomeningeal involvement did not result in detectable CSF cfDNA shedding (86% were negative). In a subset of patients, MSK-IMPACT identified previously unrecognized molecular actionable targets (e.g. BRAF-KIAA1549 fusion); or the detection of “minimal residual disease” prior to the detection of tumor recurrence by conventional diagnostics, impacting clinical care decisions. Future directions include integration of CSF cfDNA into prospective clinical trials as a correlative biomarker.


Author(s):  
JM. González de Aledo-Castillo ◽  
S. Casanueva-Eliceiry ◽  
A. Soler-Perromat ◽  
D. Fuster ◽  
V. Pastor ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 3058-3058
Author(s):  
Jacob Carey ◽  
Bryan Chesnick ◽  
Denise Butler ◽  
Michael Rongione ◽  
Giovanni Parmigiani ◽  
...  

3058 Background: Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is largely nucleosomal in origin with typical fragment lengths of 167 base-pairs reflecting the length of DNA wrapped around-the histone and H1 linker. Given the nucleosomal origin of cfDNA, we have previously used low coverage whole genome sequencing to evaluate DNA fragmentation profiles to sensitively and specifically detect tumor-derived DNA with altered fragment lengths or coverage. Methods: Here we evaluate the use of Bayesian finite mixtures to model the fragment length distribution and demonstrate how the parameters from these models can be useful to distinguish between individuals with and without cancer. We examined the number of cfDNA fragments by size ranging from 100-220bp and approximated the mixture component location, scale, and weight using Markov Chain Monte Carlo. The performance of the method was determined using a ten-fold, ten repeat cross-validation of Gradient Boosted Machine model using 1) our previously described genome-wide fragmentation profile approach, 2) the parameters from the mixture model and 3) a combination of approaches 1) and 2) as features. Results: In this study of 215 cancer patients and 208 cancer-free individuals, we observed cross-validated AUCs of 1) 0.94, 2) 0.95, and 3) 0.97 among the three approaches. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that parsimonious mixture models may improve detection of cancer in conjunction with fragmentation profile analyses across the genome.


Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (Suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Justinn Tanem ◽  
John Scott ◽  
George M Hoffman ◽  
Robert A Niebler ◽  
Aoy TOMITA-MITCHELL ◽  
...  

Introduction: Preoperative risk stratification in congenital cardiac surgery includes patient and procedure related factors, which may be used in clinical decision making as well program performance evaluation. Despite these tools, unidentified factors contribute to wide variation in outcomes both within and between centers. Identification of latent physiologic risk factors may strengthen predictive models. Hypothesis: Total cell-free DNA (TCF) functions as a biomarker for cellular injury as well as a pro-inflammatory cytokine. We hypothesized that elevated preoperative TCF would be associated with poor outcome following pediatric cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Methods: Prospective observational study of children age < 18 yr and wt > 3 kg undergoing planned CPB surgery. The Children’s Wisconsin Institutional Review Board approved the protocol . A serum TCF sample was obtained after induction of anesthesia prior to surgical incision. The primary outcome measure was a composite of postoperative cardiac arrest, ECMO, or death (CAED). Association of outcome to TCF was assessed by logistic regression with a cutpoint chosen by ROC curve exploration. Odds ratios with 95% CI were calculated. Results: Data were available in 117 patients, median age 0.9 years (range 0-17.4), median weight 7.8kg (range 3.2-98). The primary outcome (CAED) was met in 6/117 (5.1%). Table 1 summarizes characteristics of patients with and without CAED. Risk of CAED was 2% with TCF<20 ng/ml, and 27% with TCF>20 ng/ml (OR=18.2, CI 2.2- 212, p<0.01). Elevated TCF was associated to fewer hospital free days (GLM p<0.01). Data in table reported as median [IQR]. Conclusions: Preoperative TCF has an important association with postoperative cardiac arrest, ECMO, and death. Alternative or intensified treatment strategies could be considered in patients with elevated preoperative TCF.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (18) ◽  
pp. 1547-1557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emil Christensen ◽  
Karin Birkenkamp-Demtröder ◽  
Himanshu Sethi ◽  
Svetlana Shchegrova ◽  
Raheleh Salari ◽  
...  

PURPOSE Novel sensitive methods for early detection of relapse and for monitoring therapeutic efficacy may have a huge impact on risk stratification, treatment, and ultimately outcome for patients with bladder cancer. We addressed the prognostic and predictive impact of ultra-deep sequencing of cell-free DNA in patients before and after cystectomy and during chemotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS We included 68 patients with localized advanced bladder cancer. Patient-specific somatic mutations, identified by whole-exome sequencing, were used to assess circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) by ultra-deep sequencing (median, 105,000×) of plasma DNA. Plasma samples (n = 656) were procured at diagnosis, during chemotherapy, before cystectomy, and during surveillance. Expression profiling was performed for tumor subtype and immune signature analyses. RESULTS Presence of ctDNA was highly prognostic at diagnosis before chemotherapy (hazard ratio, 29.1; P = .001). After cystectomy, ctDNA analysis correctly identified all patients with metastatic relapse during disease monitoring (100% sensitivity, 98% specificity). A median lead time over radiographic imaging of 96 days was observed. In addition, for high-risk patients (ctDNA positive before or during treatment), the dynamics of ctDNA during chemotherapy was associated with disease recurrence ( P = .023), whereas pathologic downstaging was not. Analysis of tumor-centric biomarkers showed that mutational processes (signature 5) were associated with pathologic downstaging ( P = .024); however, no significant correlation for tumor subtypes, DNA damage response mutations, and other biomarkers was observed. Our results suggest that ctDNA analysis is better associated with treatment efficacy compared with other available methods. CONCLUSION ctDNA assessment for early risk stratification, therapy monitoring, and early relapse detection in bladder cancer is feasible and provides a basis for clinical studies that evaluate early therapeutic interventions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Lampignano ◽  
Martin H.D Neumann ◽  
Sabrina Weber ◽  
Vera Kloten ◽  
Andrei Herdean ◽  
...  

Abstract BACKGROUND In cancer patients, circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) can contain tumor-derived DNA (ctDNA), which enables noninvasive diagnosis, real-time monitoring, and treatment susceptibility testing. However, ctDNA fractions are highly variable, which challenges downstream applications. Therefore, established preanalytical work flows in combination with cost-efficient and reproducible reference materials for ccfDNA analyses are crucial for analytical validity and subsequently for clinical decision-making. METHODS We describe the efforts of the Innovative Medicines Initiative consortium CANCER-ID (http://www.cancer-id.eu) for comparing different technologies for ccfDNA purification, quantification, and characterization in a multicenter setting. To this end, in-house generated mononucleosomal DNA (mnDNA) from lung cancer cell lines carrying known TP53 mutations was spiked in pools of plasma from healthy donors generated from 2 different blood collection tubes (BCTs). ccfDNA extraction was performed at 15 partner sites according to their respective routine practice. Downstream analysis of ccfDNA with respect to recovery, integrity, and mutation analysis was performed centralized at 4 different sites. RESULTS We demonstrate suitability of mnDNA as a surrogate for ccfDNA as a process quality control from nucleic acid extraction to mutation detection. Although automated extraction protocols and quantitative PCR-based quantification methods yielded the most consistent and precise results, some kits preferentially recovered spiked mnDNA over endogenous ccfDNA. Mutated TP53 fragments derived from mnDNA were consistently detected using both next-generation sequencing-based deep sequencing and droplet digital PCR independently of BCT. CONCLUSIONS This comprehensive multicenter comparison of ccfDNA preanalytical and analytical work flows is an important contribution to establishing evidence-based guidelines for clinically feasible (pre)analytical work flows.


2019 ◽  
Vol 128 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soo‐Ryum Yang ◽  
Kelly L. Mooney ◽  
Paolo Libiran ◽  
Carol D. Jones ◽  
Rohan Joshi ◽  
...  

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