ArticleClinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research2021
EpiPanGI Dx: A Cell-free DNA Methylation Fingerprint for the Early Detection of Gastrointestinal Cancers.
Article in Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06476067 (Predicting Postoperative Early Tumor Recurrence in Patients With Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma), which is not on this map. Cited by 54 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.
Predicting Postoperative Early Tumor Recurrence in Patients With Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 77 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genomic and epigenomic biomarkers in colorectal cancer: From diagnosis to therapy.Advances in cancer research · 2021Pooled it
- Non-invasive screening in hereditary cancer: a randomized controlled trial to test cell-free DNA-based early detection in the CHARM consortium.European journal of human genetics : EJHG · 2026Trial
- Decomposition-driven biomarker identification enhances non-invasive early cancer detection.iScience · 2026Article
- Understanding the Epigenetic Landscape of Barrett's Esophagus and Esophageal Cancer: A Review of Current Findings, Caveats and Future Directions.Genes, chromosomes & cancer · 2026Review
- Circulating tumor DNA in gastrointestinal cancers: promise, pitfalls, and the path forward.EClinicalMedicine · 2026Review
- Clinical validation of a multi-model blood cfDNA methylation assay for early-stage gastrointestinal cancer screening.Journal of advanced research · 2026Article
- Pan-cancer differentially methylated regions are promising biomarkers for non-invasive diagnosis in multiple cancers.iScience · 2026Article
- Artificial intelligence-powered liquid biopsy in cancer: a paradigm shift in cancer detection and personalized care.Cancer cell international · 2026Review
- Novel Liquid Biopsy in Gastrointestinal Cancers.Journal of gastroenterology and hepatology · 2026Review
- A targeted DNA methylation method for detecting gastrointestinal cancer in circulating cell-free DNA.iScience · 2026Article
- Early detection of multiple cancers: the era of methylation-based liquid biopsy.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Review
- Liquid biopsy, multi-cancer early detection, and artificial intelligence: new frontiers in cancer screening from a technological and immunological perspective.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Review
- Whole-genome methylation profiling of extracellular vesicle DNA in gastric cancer identifies intercellular communication features.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Artificial Intelligence in cancer epigenomics: a review on advances in pan-cancer detection and precision medicine.Epigenetics & chromatin · 2025Review
- GUIDE: a prospective cohort study for blood-based early detection of gastrointestinal cancers using targeted DNA methylation and fragmentomics sequencing.Molecular cancer · 2025Observational
- Simulation-guided pan-cancer analysis identifies a novel regulator of CpG island hypermethylation heterogeneity.Briefings in bioinformatics · 2025Article
- Beyond Biomarkers: Machine Learning-Driven Multiomics for Personalized Medicine in Gastric Cancer.Journal of personalized medicine · 2025Review
- Multicancer Detection (MCD) Testing in Gastrointestinal Cancers: An Evolving Tool for Early Diagnosis.Current gastroenterology reports · 2025Review
- The Role of DNA Methylation in Gastrointestinal Disease: An Expanded Review of Malignant and Nonmalignant Gastrointestinal Diseases.Gastroenterology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
17 authors at 12 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeDNA methylation alterations have emerged as front-runners in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) biomarker development. However, much effort to date has focused on single cancers. In this context, gastrointestinal (GI) cancers constitute the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide; yet there is no blood-based assay for the early detection and population screening of GI cancers. EXPERIMENTAL
designHerein, we performed a genome-wide DNA methylation analysis of multiple GI cancers to develop a pan-GI diagnostic assay. By analyzing DNA methylation data from 1,781 tumor and adjacent normal tissues, we first identified differentially methylated regions (DMR) between individual GI cancers and adjacent normal, as well as across GI cancers. We next prioritized a list of 67,832 tissue DMRs by incorporating all significant DMRs across various GI cancers to design a custom, targeted bisulfite sequencing platform. We subsequently validated these tissue-specific DMRs in 300 cfDNA specimens and applied machine learning algorithms to develop three distinct categories of DMR panels
resultsWe identified three distinct DMR panels: (i) cancer-specific biomarker panels with AUC values of 0.98 (colorectal cancer), 0.98 (hepatocellular carcinoma), 0.94 (esophageal squamous cell carcinoma), 0.90 (gastric cancer), 0.90 (esophageal adenocarcinoma), and 0.85 (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma); (ii) a pan-GI panel that detected all GI cancers with an AUC of 0.88; and (iii) a multi-cancer (tissue of origin) prediction panel, EpiPanGI Dx, with a prediction accuracy of 0.85-0.95 for most GI cancers.
conclusionsUsing a novel biomarker discovery approach, we provide the first evidence for a cfDNA methylation assay that offers robust diagnostic accuracy for GI cancers.
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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.