Significance of circulating tumor DNA in precise treatment of tumor / 肿瘤研究与临床

ABSTRACT

Tissue biopsy is a diagnostic standard as well as the targeted therapy of cancer. However, tissue biopsy has some limitations in the cancer diagnosis , assessment of cancer development, prognosis and genotyping due to tumor heterogeneity and evolution. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a kind of circulating DNA fragments released by the tumor cells into the circulation system reflecting the state of tumors. With the emergence of new technology, the ways to detect the specificity and sensitivity of ctDNA have been improved greatly. Furthermore, detection of ctDNA could analyze oncogene and epigenetic changes, which has been widely used in molecular subtyping, assessment of tumor dynamic and burden, evaluation of minimal residual disease and recurrence, prognosis assessment, monitoring of drug resistance and exploration of new therapeutic targets.