ArticleOncotarget2015
Aberrant reduction of telomere repetitive sequences in plasma cell-free DNA for early breast cancer detection.
Article in Oncotarget, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Shorter telomere length as a prognostic marker for survival and recurrence in breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Exploration of targeted anti-tumor therapy · 2025Pooled it
- Value of circulating cell-free DNA analysis as a diagnostic tool for breast cancer: a meta-analysis.Oncotarget · 2017Pooled it
- Cell-free DNA testing for the detection and prognosis prediction of pancreatic cancer.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Vaginal lavage fluid can serve as a reliable method for early screening of endometrial cancer: a proof-of-concept study.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Shortens the cfDNA Telomere Length in Breast Cancer Patients.International journal of breast cancer · 2024Article
- The Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Therapeutic Potential of Cell-Free DNA with a Special Focus on COVID-19 and Other Viral Infections.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- The role of Extracellular Genomic Materials (EGMs) in psychiatric disorders.Translational psychiatry · 2023Review
- Review
- The Utility of Repetitive Cell-Free DNA in Cancer Liquid Biopsies.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Cancer Biomarkers in Liquid Biopsy for Early Detection of Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review.Clinical Medicine Insights. Oncology · 2022Review
- A novel multiplex qPCR method for assessing the comparative lengths of telomeres.Journal of clinical laboratory analysis · 2021Article
- Circulating Cell-Free DNA in Breast Cancer: Searching for Hidden Information towards Precision Medicine.Cancers · 2021Review
- Cell-free DNA promotes malignant transformation in non-tumor cells.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Aberrant Telomere Length in Circulating Cell-Free DNA as Possible Blood Biomarker with High Diagnostic Performance in Endometrial Cancer.Pathology oncology research : POR · 2020Article
- A plasma telomeric cell-free DNA level in unaffected women with BRCA1 or/and BRCA2 mutations: a pilot study.Oncotarget · 2018Article
- Cell-free DNA from human plasma and serum differs in content of telomeric sequences and its ability to promote immune response.Scientific reports · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Excessive telomere shortening is observed in breast cancer lesions when compared to adjacent non-cancerous tissues, suggesting that telomere length may represent a key biomarker for early cancer detection. Because tumor-derived, cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is often released from cancer cells and circulates in the bloodstream, we hypothesized that breast cancer development is associated with changes in the amount of telomeric cfDNA that can be detected in the plasma. To test this hypothesis, we devised a novel, highly sensitive and specific quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay, termed telomeric cfDNA qPCR, to quantify plasma telomeric cfDNA levels. Indeed, the internal reference primers of our design correctly reflected input cfDNA amount (R(2) = 0.910, P = 7.82 × 10(-52)), implying accuracy of this assay. We found that plasma telomeric cfDNA levels decreased with age in healthy individuals (n = 42, R(2) = 0.094, P = 0.048), suggesting that cfDNA is likely derived from somatic cells in which telomere length shortens with increasing age. Our results also showed a significant decrease in telomeric cfDNA level from breast cancer patients with no prior treatment (n = 47), compared to control individuals (n = 42) (P = 4.06 × 10(-8)). The sensitivity and specificity for the telomeric cfDNA qPCR assay was 91.49% and 76.19%, respectively. Furthermore, the telomeric cfDNA level distinguished even the Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS) group (n = 7) from the healthy group (n = 42) (P = 1.51 × 10(-3)). Taken together, decreasing plasma telomeric cfDNA levels could be an informative genetic biomarker for early breast cancer detection.
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Registered trials
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