ArticleBritish journal of cancer2009
The presence of circulating total DNA and methylated genes is associated with circulating tumour cells in blood from breast cancer patients.
Article in British journal of cancer, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Liquid biopsy prediction of axillary lymph node metastasis, cancer recurrence, and patient survival in breast cancer: A meta-analysis.Medicine · 2018Pooled it
- Quantitative assessment of the association between APC promoter methylation and breast cancer.Oncotarget · 2016Pooled it
- Blood-based DNA methylation as biomarker for breast cancer: a systematic review.Clinical epigenetics · 2016Pooled it
- Liquid Biopsy-Based DNA Methylation Biomarkers for Precision Medicine in Breast Cancer.Expert reviews in molecular medicine · 2025Review
- Revolution of Circulating Tumor DNA: From Bench Innovations to Bedside Implementations.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- Clinical Validation of a Size-Based Microfluidic Device for Circulating Tumor Cell Isolation and Analysis in Renal Cell Carcinoma.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Article
- Overexpression of Stat3 increases circulating cfDNA in breast cancer.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2021Article
- Review
- A DNA Methylation-Based Test for Breast Cancer Detection in Circulating Cell-Free DNA.Journal of clinical medicine · 2018Article
- Evaluation of Promoter Methylation of RASSF1A and ATM in Peripheral Blood of Breast Cancer Patients and Healthy Control Individuals.International journal of molecular sciences · 2018Article
- Monitoring of Serum DNA Methylation as an Early Independent Marker of Response and Survival in Metastatic Breast Cancer: TBCRC 005 Prospective Biomarker Study.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2017Article
- The concerted impact of domestication and transposon insertions on methylation patterns between dogs and grey wolves.Molecular ecology · 2016Article
- Detection and monitoring of hypermethylated RASSF1A in serum from patients with metastatic breast cancer.Clinical epigenetics · 2016Article
- Article
- Epigenetic Biomarkers of Breast Cancer Risk: Across the Breast Cancer Prevention Continuum.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2016Review
- Role of Circulating Cell-Free DNA in Cancers.Molecular diagnosis & therapy · 2015Review
- Circulating DNA as biomarker in breast cancer.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2015Review
- Silver Nanoscale Hexagonal Column Chips for Detecting Cell-free DNA and Circulating Nucleosomes in Cancer Patients.Scientific reports · 2015Article
- Methylated APC and RASSF1A in multiple specimens contribute to the differential diagnosis of patients with undetermined solitary pulmonary nodules.Journal of thoracic disease · 2015Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
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Abstract
Circulating tumour cells (CTC) and tumour-related methylated DNA in blood have been separately assessed for their utility as a marker for subclinical metastasis in breast cancer. However, no studies have looked into the relation between the both molecular markers in this type of cancer. In this study, we investigated the correlations between total/methylated DNA and CTC in the blood from metastatic breast cancer patients. We simultaneously obtained whole blood, plasma and serum samples from 80 patients and 20 controls. The CellSearch System was used to enumerate CTC in blood samples. Plasma total DNA levels were determined by a QPCR method. Sera were analysed by methylation-specific QPCR for three markers: adenomatous polyposis coli (APC), ras association domain family protein 1A (RASSF1A) and oestrogen receptor 1 (ESR1). Total DNA levels in patients were significantly increased when compared with controls (P<0.001) and correlated with the number of CTC (r=0.418, P<0.001). Hypermethylation of one or more genes was detected in 42 (53%) serum samples from breast cancer patients and in three (16%) serum samples from controls (P=0.003). APC was hypermethylated in 29%, RASSF1A in 35% and ESR1 in 20% of breast cancer cases. Detection of a methylated gene in serum was associated with the detection of CTC in blood (P=0.03). The detection of large amounts of circulating total/methylated DNA correlated with the presence of CTC in the blood from patients with breast cancer. This can be interpreted in two ways: (a) CTC are a potential source of circulating tumour-specific DNA; (b) high numbers of CTC and circulating methylated DNA are both a phenotypic feature of more aggressive tumour biology.
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