ArticleNature communications2021
A comprehensive characterization of the cell-free transcriptome reveals tissue- and subtype-specific biomarkers for cancer detection.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. It is linked to trial NCT02889978 (The Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas Study), which is not on this map. Cited by 162 papers.
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.
The Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas Study
Who cites it
162 citing papers in PubMed, 252 citations in OpenAlex.
- Advancing the applications of liquid biopsies in oncology.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Deconformer: efficient cell-type composition profiling of cfRNA across diverse cell types.Briefings in bioinformatics · 2026Article
- Exploring plasma cell-free RNA biomarkers for predicting immune checkpoint inhibitor efficacy in gastric cancer: a translational sub-study of the KSCC VOYAGER phase II trial.International journal of clinical oncology · 2026Article
- Decoding cancer circulating transcriptomic signatures with language models.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A method of comprehensive sequencing analysis of the small RNA fragmentome (RiboMarker).RNA (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- RBAD: The first database dedicated alterations of blood RNA in individuals with Alzheimer's disease and their clinical relevance.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- From Cell-Free Transcriptomes to Single-Cell Landscapes: Biomarker Discovery and Originating Cell Alteration Analysis via Graph Matrix Factorization.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Modifications of microbiome-derived cell-free RNA in plasma discriminates colorectal cancer samples.Nature biotechnology · 2026Article
- Cell-free nucleic acids as a non-invasive biomarker for predicting COVID-19 disease severity and outcome: a retrospective cohort study.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Metastatic Odyssey: Decoding the Genomic Journey from Primary Colorectal Cancer to Disseminated Disease.Cancers · 2026Review
- Cell-free RNA Signatures Derived from the Tumor Microenvironment Predict Outcomes of CAR-T Therapy in Large B Cell Lymphoma.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Vascular and Neural Transcriptomics Reveal Stage-Dependent Pathways to Inflammation and Cognitive Dysfunction in a Rat Model of Hypertension.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2026Article
- Patient-specific alterations in blood plasma cfRNA profiles enable accurate classification of cancer patients and controls.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Circulating RNA as a Functional Component of Liquid Biopsy in Cancer: Concepts, Classification, and Clinical Applications.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Tumor Genomics and Liquid Biopsy in Cancer Biology: From Static Snapshots to Dynamic Measurements.Biomolecules · 2026Article
- Review
- Liquid biopsy epigenetics: establishing a molecular profile based on cell-free DNA.Molecular oncology · 2026Review
- Extracellular Vesicles in Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy: Advances, Challenges, and Prospects for Clinical Translation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Emerging liquid biopsy tools to analyse cancer biomarkers: electrochemical sensors and extracellular vesicle analysis.Biochemical Society transactions · 2026Review
- Systematic annotation of orphan RNAs reveals blood-accessible molecular barcodes of cancer identity and cancer-emergent oncogenic drivers.Cell reports. Medicine · 2026Article
102 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
11 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) is a promising analyte for cancer detection. However, a comprehensive assessment of cfRNA in individuals with and without cancer has not been conducted. We perform the first transcriptome-wide characterization of cfRNA in cancer (stage III breast [n = 46], lung [n = 30]) and non-cancer (n = 89) participants from the Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas (NCT02889978). Of 57,820 annotated genes, 39,564 (68%) are not detected in cfRNA from non-cancer individuals. Within these low-noise regions, we identify tissue- and cancer-specific genes, defined as "dark channel biomarker" (DCB) genes, that are recurrently detected in individuals with cancer. DCB levels in plasma correlate with tumor shedding rate and RNA expression in matched tissue, suggesting that DCBs with high expression in tumor tissue could enhance cancer detection in patients with low levels of circulating tumor DNA. Overall, cfRNA provides a unique opportunity to detect cancer, predict the tumor tissue of origin, and determine the cancer subtype.
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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.