ArticleCell death & disease2018
Circulating tumor DNA in patients with colorectal adenomas: assessment of detectability and genetic heterogeneity.
Article in Cell death & disease, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Circulating Cell-Free DNA and Colorectal Cancer: A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2018Pooled it
- Tumor-specificJCEM case reports · 2026Article
- Diagnostic Accuracy of Blood-Based cfDNA/ctDNA Tests for Colorectal Cancer-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Cancers · 2026Review
- Observational
- Systematic Review of Methods for Measuring Circulating Cell-Free DNA in Plasma of Healthy Individuals.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The diagnostic value of the liquid biopsy in the colon cancer.Future science OA · 2025Review
- Genomics and Epigenomics Approaches for the Quantification of Circulating Tumor DNA in Liquid Biopsy: Relevance of a Multimodal Strategy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Challenges and proposed solutions to the adoption of cell free DNA in screening, detecting and prognosticating colorectal cancer.World journal of gastrointestinal oncology · 2025Review
- Are Non-invasive Multi-cancer Early Cancer Detection Tests the Future?Digestive diseases and sciences · 2025Review
- Circulating tumor DNA in colorectal cancer: biology, methods and applications.Discover oncology · 2025Review
- Research progress on early diagnostic biomarkers and liquid biopsy technologies for colorectal cancer: a comprehensive review.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Review
- Plasma mutation profile of precursor lesions and colorectal cancer using the Oncomine Colon cfDNA Assay.BMC cancer · 2024Article
- Article
- Ultrasensitive plasma-based monitoring of tumor burden using machine-learning-guided signal enrichment.Nature medicine · 2024Article
- Next-generation Multi-target Stool DNA Panel Accurately Detects Colorectal Cancer and Advanced Precancerous Lesions.Cancer prevention research (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2024Article
- Review
- Article
- Estimated US Cancer Deaths Prevented With Increased Use of Lung, Colorectal, Breast, and Cervical Cancer Screening.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Genomic and Transcriptomic Research in the Discovery and Application of Colorectal Cancer Circulating Markers.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Molecular methods for colorectal cancer screening: Progress with next-generation sequencing evolution.World journal of gastrointestinal oncology · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
18 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Improving early detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) is a key public health priority as adenomas and stage I cancer can be treated with minimally invasive procedures. Population screening strategies based on detection of occult blood in the feces have contributed to enhance detection rates of localized disease, but new approaches based on genetic analyses able to increase specificity and sensitivity could provide additional advantages compared to current screening methodologies. Recently, circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) has received much attention as a cancer biomarker for its ability to monitor the progression of advanced disease, predict tumor recurrence and reflect the complex genetic heterogeneity of cancers. Here, we tested whether analysis of cfDNA is a viable tool to enhance detection of colon adenomas. To address this, we assessed a cohort of patients with adenomas and healthy controls using droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) and mutation-specific assays targeted to trunk mutations. Additionally, we performed multiregional, targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) of adenomas and unmasked extensive heterogeneity, affecting known drivers such as APC, KRAS and mismatch repair (MMR) genes. However, tumor-related mutations were undetectable in patients' plasma. Finally, we employed a preclinical mouse model of Apc-driven intestinal adenomas and confirmed the inability to identify tumor-related alterations via cfDNA, despite the enhanced disease burden displayed by this experimental cancer model. Therefore, we conclude that benign colon lesions display extensive genetic heterogeneity, that they are not prone to release DNA into the circulation and are unlikely to be reliably detected with liquid biopsies, at least with the current technologies.
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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.