ArticleClinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research2025
A Tumor-Naïve ctDNA Assay Detects Minimal Residual Disease in Resected Stage II or III Colorectal Cancer and Predicts Recurrence: Subset Analysis from the GALAXY Study in CIRCULATE-Japan.
Article in Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Trajectory identification of high-risk subgroups after colorectal cancer surgery in patients with minimal residual disease: a single-center longitudinal study.Journal of gastrointestinal oncology · 2026Article
- Circulating Tumor DNA Dynamics in Patients with Liver-Limited Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Resected after First-Line Systemic Treatment.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2026Article
- Cell-Free DNA Analysis With Clinicopathologic Factors for Early Detection and Refining Lymph Node Metastasis Risk in T1 Colorectal Cancer: Results From the COSMOS-CRC Study.JCO precision oncology · 2026Observational
- Article
- Novel Liquid Biopsy in Gastrointestinal Cancers.Journal of gastroenterology and hepatology · 2026Review
- Validation of a methylation-based, tissue-free MRD assay in colorectal cancer patients from the GALAXY study.NPJ precision oncology · 2026Article
- The cerebrospinal fluid immune microenvironment in lung cancer leptomeningeal metastasis: cellular ecosystems and therapeutic possibilities.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Blood-based tumor biomarkers: integrating biological layers and analytical strategies for precision cancer detection.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- ctDNA and immune biomarker testing for molecular residual disease surveillance and immune stratification in cancer.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- Postoperative circulating tumor DNA in stage II colon cancer: biological rationale, clinical evidence, and unresolved challenges.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Review
- Beyond traditional staging system: Tumor-Node-Metastasis-Blood staging system improves treatment decisions and prognostic stratification in cancer patients.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Review
- ctDNA detects residual disease after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and guides adjuvant therapy in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Observational
- Revolution of Circulating Tumor DNA: From Bench Innovations to Bedside Implementations.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- Advances in CTC and ctDNA detection techniques: opportunities for improving breast cancer care.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2025Review
- Perioperative immunochemotherapy in stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer: insights on the path forward.Translational lung cancer research · 2025Article
- Review
- Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
28 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeAnalysis of ctDNA may enable early identification of patients likely to relapse, presenting an opportunity for early interventions and improved outcomes. Tumor-naïve plasma-only approaches for minimal residual disease (MRD) assessment accelerate turnaround time, enabling rapid treatment decisions and ongoing surveillance. EXPERIMENTAL
designPlasma samples were obtained from 80 study participants with stage II or III colorectal cancer selected from CIRCULATE-Japan GALAXY. MRD status was assessed using a tumor-naïve ctDNA assay (xM) that integrates methylation and genomic variant data, delivering a binary call. MRD was assessed at 4 weeks postsurgery [landmark time point (LMT)] using methylation and genomic variant data and longitudinally (median, 22.1 months) using only methylation data.
resultsAt LMT, 69/80 study participants were evaluable (36 recurrent; 33 nonrecurrent). Of recurrent study participants, 22/36 had detectable ctDNA (MRD-positive) at LMT and 29/33 nonrecurrent study participants had undetectable ctDNA (MRD-negative), yielding a clinical sensitivity of 61.1% and specificity of 87.9%. Additionally, 74 study participants were evaluable for longitudinal performance with a clinical sensitivity of 83.3% and specificity of 89.5%. The median lead time from the first MRD-positive result to recurrence was 4.77 months overall, and 5.30 months for study participants with no adjuvant treatment. At 12 weeks postsurgery, MRD status strongly correlated with disease-free survival (adjusted HR, 9.69), outperforming carcinoembryonic antigen correlation (HR, 2.13).
conclusionsThis tumor-naïve MRD assay demonstrated clinically meaningful performance at LMT and longitudinally, accurately predicting clinical recurrence. MRD status was a stronger prognostic biomarker for disease-free survival compared with standard-of-care carcinoembryonic antigen.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.