Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30285732›Full record

ArticleBMC medicine2018

Utility of circulating tumor DNA in cancer diagnostics with emphasis on early detection.

Clare Fiala, Eleftherios P Diamandis

Open access · goldAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in BMC medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 151 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
151citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
9.3field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

151 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 271 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  4. Observational
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  12. Harnessing biomarkers to guide immunotherapy in esophageal cancer: toward precision oncology.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2026
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  19. Wearable bioelectronics for cancer theranostics.Microsystems & nanoengineering · 2025
    Review
  20. Review

91 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Clare FialaDepartment of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Eleftherios P DiamandisDepartment of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada. eleftherios.diamandis@sinaihealthsystem.ca.
Mount Sinai Hospital · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Various recent studies have focused on analyzing tumor genetic material released into the blood stream, known as circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). Herein, we describe current research on the application of ctDNA to cancer management, including prognosis determination, monitoring for treatment efficacy/relapse, treatment selection, and quantification of tumor size and disease burden. Specifically, we examine the utility of ctDNA for early cancer diagnostics focusing on the development of a blood test to detect cancer in asymptomatic individuals by sequencing and analyzing mutations in ctDNA. Next, we discuss the prospect of using ctDNA to test for cancer, and present our calculations based on previously published empirical findings in cancer and prenatal diagnostics. We show that very early stage (asymptomatic) tumors are not likely to release enough ctDNA to be detectable in a typical blood draw of 10 mL. Data are also presented showing that mutations in circulating free DNA can be found in healthy individuals and will likely be very difficult to distinguish from those associated with cancer.We conclude that the ctDNA test, in addition to its high cost and complexity, will likely suffer from the same issues of low sensitivity and specificity as traditional biomarkers when applied to population screening and early (asymptomatic) cancer diagnosis.

Indexed as

Biomarkers, TumorCirculating Tumor DNAEarly Detection of CancerFemaleHumansNeoplasmsSensitivity and SpecificityBiomarkers, TumorCirculating Tumor DNABiomarkerBlood testCancer diagnosisCancer mutationsCirculating tumor DNAEarly cancer detectionTranslational omics

Identifiers

PMID30285732
PMCPMC6167864
OpenAlexW2890545987

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.