ArticleFrontiers in oncology2020
A New Horizon of Liquid Biopsy in Thymic Epithelial Tumors: The Potential Utility of Circulating Cell-Free DNA.
Article in Frontiers in oncology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Precision Oncology in Thymic Epithelial Tumors: Therapeutic Horizons and Implementation Barriers.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Thymic epithelial tumors: a narrative review of diagnostic and therapeutic advances.Translational cancer research · 2026Review
- Noninvasive biomarkers in thymic epithelial tumors: a systematic review of cfDNA/ctDNA detection, molecular profiling, and organoid-based monitoring.Journal of thoracic disease · 2026Review
- Article
- Surveillance of thymic epithelial tumors (TETs)-a narrative review.Mediastinum (Hong Kong, China) · 2025Review
- Review
- Liquid Biopsies beyond Mutation Calling: Genomic and Epigenomic Features of Cell-Free DNA in Cancer.Cancers · 2021Review
- Liquid Biopsies for Molecular Biology-Based Radiotherapy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Impact of Preanalytical and Analytical Methods on Cell-Free DNA Diagnostics.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Article
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19 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are rare thoracic malignancies, commonly divided into two different histopathological entities, thymoma (T) and thymic carcinoma (TC). To date, there are no specific biomarkers for monitoring the biological course of these rare tumors. We carried out a single center study aiming at the detection of circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) and the correlation of its levels with metastatic dissemination and histological subtype in patients with TETs.
methodsFrom July 2018 to January 2020, 5-ml blood samples from 26 patients with advanced TET (aTET) (11 patients with TC and 15 patients with T) and from six patients with completely resected TET (cr-TET), were prospectively obtained before the initiation of systemic therapy. Blood samples from 10 healthy donors were used as control. The QIAamp MinElute ccfDNA Kits was used for ccfDNA isolation from plasma; real-time PCR was used for cfDNA quantification.
resultsWe found significantly higher ccfDNA amount in patients with T and TC compared to controls, with median ccfDNA level of 3.3 ng/µl, 11.4 ng/µl and 25.6 ng/µl, for healthy donors, T and TC patients, respectively (p<0.001). No significant difference was found between cr-TET and controls (p = 0.175). ccfDNA concentrations were higher in metastatic (M1a and M1b) compared to non-metastatic (M0) TETs (25.6 ng/µl versus 7.2 ng/µl; p= 0.037). No significant correlation was found either between ccfDNA and disease stage, according to both the Masaoka-Koga (p= 0.854) and the TNM 8th edition staging systems (p = 0.66), or between ccfDNA levels and overall tumor burden, estimated according RECIST 1.1 criteria (r = 0.07, p = 0.725).
conclusionsTo the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that prospectively explores detection and quantification of ccfDNA in TETs. Higher baseline cfDNA levels have been observed in both advanced T and TC comparing to the control group.
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