ArticleNPJ precision oncology2026
Personalized ctDNA analysis for detection of residual disease and recurrence in surgically treated HNSCC patients.
Article in NPJ precision oncology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Immune checkpoint inhibitors in resectable and locoregionally advanced HNSCC: past lessons, present evidence, and future directions.The oncologist · 2026Review
- Review
- Review
- Preoperative circulating tumor cells integrated with imaging analysis for prognostic evaluation in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.Molecular oncology · 2026Article
- Enrichment of mutated DNA enables ultra-sensitive ctDNA detection in NSCLC using shallow targeted sequencing.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Pan-Cancer Pre-Treatment ctDNA Detection Using a Highly Sensitive Tumor-Informed Assay.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
19 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite advances in multimodal therapy, survival in advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) has improved only modestly. Tumor-informed circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assays allow early detection of molecular residual disease (MRD) and recurrence after curative treatment. We analyzed ctDNA in plasma from 76 and saliva from 54 HNSCC patients before and after curative-intent surgery, testing 656 plasma and 128 saliva samples longitudinally. High preoperative ctDNA shedding correlated with advanced pathological stage, lymph node involvement, adverse histologic features, and molecular markers including PD-1 expression and tumor mutational burden. Transcriptomic profiling showed associations between high shedding and increased proliferation, EGFR/MAPK pathway activity, and upregulation of EGFR-related invasion and metastasis genes. Plasma ctDNA detected ≥14 days post-surgery identified 91.3% of recurrences, with lead times up to 500 days before clinical confirmation. These results highlight the value of serial ctDNA monitoring for early relapse detection and potentially improved treatment guidance in HNSCC.
Identifiers
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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.