ArticlePloS one2016
Reproducibility of Digital PCR Assays for Circulating Tumor DNA Analysis in Advanced Breast Cancer.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Specialized Blood Collection Tubes for Liquid Biopsy: Improving the Pre-analytical Conditions.Molecular diagnosis & therapy · 2020Pooled it
- Liquid biopsy prediction of axillary lymph node metastasis, cancer recurrence, and patient survival in breast cancer: A meta-analysis.Medicine · 2018Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Liquid Biopsy in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: ctDNA as a Potential Biomarker for Diagnosis and Prognosis.Current oncology reports · 2025Review
- Impact of Molecular Profiling on Therapy Management in Breast Cancer.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Pre-Analytical Evaluation of Streck Cell-Free DNA Blood Collection Tubes for Liquid Profiling in Oncology.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The Clinical Utility of Droplet Digital PCR for Profiling Circulating Tumor DNA in Breast Cancer Patients.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Clinical and Biological Aspects of Disseminated Tumor Cells and Dormancy in Breast Cancer.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- Review
- Article
- Review
- PIK3CA mutation enrichment and quantitation from blood and tissue.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Circulating tumor DNA detection: A potential tool for colorectal cancer management.Oncology letters · 2019Review
- An Optimized Workflow to Evaluate Estrogen Receptor Gene Mutations in Small Amounts of Cell-Free DNA.The Journal of molecular diagnostics : JMD · 2019Article
- Understanding preanalytical variables and their effects on clinical biomarkers of oncology and immunotherapy.Seminars in cancer biology · 2018Review
- The Impact of ESR1 Mutations on the Treatment of Metastatic Breast Cancer.Hormones & cancer · 2018Review
- Tracking plasma DNA mutation dynamics in estrogen receptor positive metastatic breast cancer with dPCR-SEQ.NPJ breast cancer · 2018Article
- Article
- Analysis ofOncotarget · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis has the potential to allow non-invasive analysis of tumor mutations in advanced cancer. In this study we assessed the reproducibility of digital PCR (dPCR) assays of circulating tumor DNA in a cohort of patients with advanced breast cancer and assessed delayed plasma processing using cell free DNA preservative tubes. We recruited a cohort of 96 paired samples from 71 women with advanced breast cancer who had paired blood samples processed either immediately or delayed in preservative tubes with processing 48-72 hours after collection. Plasma DNA was analysed with multiplex digital PCR (mdPCR) assays for hotspot mutations in PIK3CA, ESR1 and ERBB2, and for AKT1 E17K. There was 94.8% (91/96) agreement in mutation calling between immediate and delayed processed tubes, kappa 0.88 95% CI 0.77-0.98). Discordance in mutation calling resulted from low allele frequency and likely stochastic effects. In concordant samples there was high correlation in mutant copies per ml plasma (r2 = 0.98; p<0.0001). There was elevation of total cell free plasma DNA concentrations in 10.3% of delayed processed tubes, although overall quantification of total cell free plasma DNA had similar prognostic effects in immediate (HR 3.6) and delayed (HR 3.0) tubes. There was moderate agreement in changes in allele fraction between sequential samples in quantitative mutation tracking (r = 0.84, p = 0.0002). Delayed processing of samples using preservative tubes allows for centralized ctDNA digital PCR mutation screening in advanced breast cancer. The potential of preservative tubes in quantitative mutation tracking requires further research.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.