ArticleClinical and translational medicine2025
Gene-specific ctDNA dynamics predict tumour burden and survival outcomes in ESCC: A prospective cohort study.
Article in Clinical and translational medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 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
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Circulating Tumor DNA for Minimal Residual Disease Detection and Recurrence Prediction in Upper Gastrointestinal Cancers: A Scoping Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- 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
- Gene-specific ctDNA dynamics predict tumour burden and survival outcomes in ESCC: A prospective cohort study.Clinical and translational medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundOesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains a highly aggressive malignancy with limited biomarkers for monitoring tumour burden and prognosis. Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) has emerged as a promising tool for real-time disease assessment, but its clinical utility in ESCC remains underexplored.
methodsIn this prospective cohort study, we analysed preoperative and postoperative ctDNA from 54 treatment-naïve ESCC patients undergoing radical surgery using a 61-gene panel. Associations between ctDNA mutations, clinicopathological characteristics and survival outcomes were evaluated.
resultsPreoperative ctDNA mutations were detected in 96.3% of patients (52/54), with Tumour Protein 53 (TP53) (59.3%), Phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit alpha (PIK3CA) (31.5%) and Phosphatase and Tensin Homologue (PTEN) (13.0%) being most prevalent. Surgical resection significantly reduced ctDNA positivity (p < .0001). Advanced-stage tumours exhibited higher frequencies of PIK3CA (47.8% vs. 19.4%, p = .026) and PTEN mutations (26.1% vs. 3.2%, p = .034). Survival analysis revealed that postoperative TP53 ctDNA positivity predicted worse disease-free survival (DFS; Hazard Ratio (HR) = 3.64, p = .005) and overall survival (OS; HR = 3.29, p = .009), while PIK3CA positivity was associated with improved OS (p = .032). Strikingly, preoperative PTEN ctDNA-positive patients showed dramatically worse outcomes, with median DFS of 4.01 versus 33.27 months (HR = 7.53, p < .001) and OS of 11.80 versus 45.17 months (HR = 5.35, p < .001). In multivariate analysis, preoperative PTEN positivity remained the strongest independent prognostic factor for both DFS (HR = 7.28, p = .002) and OS (HR = 3.76, p = .028), surpassing Tumour, Node, Metastasis (TNM) stage.
conclusionsOur findings highlight the dynamic role of ctDNA in reflecting ESCC tumour burden and prognosis. While tumour-agnostic ctDNA analysis showed limited clinical utility, gene-specific mutations (TP53, PIK3CA and PTEN) demonstrated significant prognostic value. Preoperative PTEN ctDNA positivity emerged as a robust predictor of aggressive disease, suggesting its potential for risk stratification and personalised therapeutic strategies in ESCC.
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.