ArticleCancer medicine2026
Circulating Mitochondrial DNA Measures Across Malignancies: Diagnostic Accuracy and Prognostic Associations.
Article in Cancer medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
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
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCirculating mitochondrial DNA is being investigated as a liquid-biopsy biomarker because of its high copy number and release during cellular stress. However, diagnostic estimates vary across tumor types and assays, and prognostic studies have measured both cell-free mtDNA and cellular blood-derived mtDNA, which are not analytically equivalent. Non-malignant tissue injury and inflammation may also increase circulating mtDNA, limiting disease specificity.
methodsFollowing PRISMA 2020 guidance, seven databases were searched through December 2025. Diagnostic analyses synthesized predominantly cell-free mtDNA assays, whereas prognostic analyses synthesized the circulating or blood-derived mtDNA measures reported by the original studies. Random-effects models were used to pool diagnostic indices and hazard ratios across 31 unique studies comprising 8334 patients with cancer and 1286 controls. The protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD420261301732).
resultsPredominantly cell-free mtDNA assays showed a pooled sensitivity of 0.73, specificity of 0.80, diagnostic odds ratio of 15.41, and area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.845, with substantial between-study heterogeneity. The mtDNA-79 subgroup showed a sensitivity of 0.79, specificity of 0.93, and area under the curve of 0.909. Higher circulating or blood-derived mtDNA measures were associated with poorer overall survival (HR = 1.70, 95% CI: 1.42-2.03) and relapse-free survival (HR = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.71-2.44), but not with progression-free survival or mortality. MT-CYB-based measures showed a stronger adverse prognostic association than MT-ND1-based measures.
conclusionsCirculating mtDNA measures show diagnostic and prognostic associations across malignancies, but current evidence does not support stand-alone clinical use. Heterogeneity in specimen matrix, pre-analytical handling, assay definition, and disease-control selection requires standardized multicenter validation. mtDNA-79 and MT-CYB warrant further study, while total mtDNA abundance should be interpreted as a cancer-associated rather than cancer-specific signal unless combined with tumor-informed genomic or fragmentomic features.
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.