Observational studyAnnals of surgery2026
Circulating Tumor DNA Assessment to Predict Risk of Recurrence After Surgery in Patients With Locally Advanced Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Prospective Observational Study.
Observational study in Annals of surgery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07371247 (Based on ctDNA-MRD Guided Adjuvant Treatment Escalation After Definitive Chemoradiotherapy for Unresectable Locally Advanced Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma), which is not on this map. Cited by 8 papers.
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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.
Based on ctDNA-MRD Guided Adjuvant Treatment Escalation After Definitive Chemoradiotherapy for Unresectable Locally Advanced Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: a Study on Safety and Efficacy
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Narrative review: clinical application and challenges of circulating tumor DNA in treatment response evaluation and prognostic prediction for esophageal cancer.Journal of thoracic disease · 2026Review
- Perioperative circulating tumor DNA profiling for recurrence risk in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: moving toward a biology-driven surveillance model.Annals of translational medicine · 2026Article
- Integrating tumor regression and nodal status for refined prognostication after neoadjuvant therapy in esophageal cancer: where does TRG-N fit in the evolving global landscape?Translational cancer research · 2026Article
- Circulating tumor DNA dynamics predict pathological response and guide therapy personalization in the neoadjuvant setting.Discover oncology · 2026Review
- Integration of habitat radiomics and traditional radiomic features for predicting pathological complete response in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma following neoadjuvant immunotherapy and chemotherapy: a multicenter comparative study.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Article
- Genomic alterations and dynamic molecular residual disease monitoring predict pathological response to neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Circulating tumor DNA informs clinical practice in patients with recurrent/metastatic gastroesophageal cancers.Cancer · 2026Article
- Multi-analyte liquid biopsy approaches for early detection of esophageal cancer: the expanding role of ctDNA.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Review
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25 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate the association between perioperative ctDNA status and prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).
backgroundCirculating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has emerged as a promising biomarker for assessing molecular residual disease (MRD) in various malignancies. However, there are limited studies evaluating the utility of ctDNA for predicting recurrence risk in patients with ESCC.
methodsWe prospectively enrolled patients with locally advanced ESCC who were scheduled to receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) followed by surgery. This report retrospectively analyzed ctDNA with a personalized, tumor-informed 16-plex mPCR-NGS assay at multiple time points: pre-NAC, post-NAC but before surgery, postoperatively, and longitudinally during follow-up.
resultsA total of 28 patients who underwent curative surgery and had successful whole-exome sequencing analyses of tumor tissue samples were included in this report. At the pre-NAC time point, ctDNA was detected in 50% of patients with stage I and 100% of those with stages II, III, and IV. Post-NAC but before surgery, ctDNA was detected in 33.3% of patients. The recurrence rate was 77.8% in ctDNA-positive patients compared to 27.8% in ctDNA-negative patients, with significantly worse recurrence-free survival (RFS) for ctDNA-positive patients vs. ctDNA-negative patients (HR: 4.56, P =0.01). In patients analyzed during the MRD window (2-16 weeks post-surgery), the recurrence rate was 100% in ctDNA-positive patients compared with 30.4% in ctDNA-negative patients, with significantly worse RFS (HR: 30.99, P <0.0001). Similarly, during surveillance (>16 weeks postsurgery), detectable ctDNA was significantly associated with poor RFS (HR: 27.34, P =0.003).
conclusionsThis study suggests that ctDNA-based MRD assessment may be valuable for evaluating patients with ESCC, particularly in post-NAC and postsurgical settings.
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