ArticleBreast cancer research and treatment2024
Measuring cfDNA integrity as a biomarker for predicting neoadjuvant chemotherapy response in breast cancer patients: a pilot study.
Article in Breast cancer research and treatment, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evolution of the Use of Circulating DNA as a Biomarker in Neoadjuvant Therapy of Breast Cancer.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Review
- Circulating Cell-Free DNA Integrity for Breast and Prostate Cancer: What Is the Landscape for Clinical Management of the Most Common Cancers in Women and Men?International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Prognostic utility of inflammatory indices and circulating nucleic acids for neoadjuvant chemotherapy outcomes in breast cancer: a systematic review.Therapeutic advances in medical oncology · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
purposeCirculating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is a promising biomarker for predicting treatment response and disease outcomes in Breast Cancer (BC) patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). To determine if cfDNA originates from tumors, matching tumor and cfDNA gene mutations are necessary, often requiring tumor DNA sequencing. We assessed plasma cfDNA integrity by measuring concentrations and ratios of larger-to-smaller Alu DNA fractions as a potential biomarker, eliminating the need for prior tumor sequencing.
methodsWe included patients with localized and/or locally advanced BC receiving standard NAC alone or in combination with immunotherapy and/or anti-HER2 targeted therapy. Blood samples were collected before treatment, every 2 weeks during treatment, and before surgery.
resultsOf the 38 evaluated patients, only 28 completed the protocol and underwent surgery after NAC. Seven patients (25%) achieved a pathologic complete response (pCR). We found that cfDNA integrity (cfDNAI) levels at 15 days after starting NAC were significantly higher in patients who achieved pCR (p = 0.045) and correlated significantly with Disease-Free Survival (DFS) in univariate analysis (p = 0.0371).
conclusionsEvaluation of cfDNAI 2 weeks after NAC initiation appears to be an early biomarker for tumor pCR and DFS. Measuring Alu fragments of different lengths may replace techniques requiring prior tumor sequencing to measure ctDNA, reducing costs and complexity of cfDNA serial measurements in BC patients undergoing NAC.
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