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Updated: Apr 6, 2026
Detection and Monitoring of Tumor Associated Circulating DNA in Patient Biofluids
Published on: June 8, 2019
[Free circulating DNA as a tool for lung cancer patients management]
C Tissot1, S Villar2, M Olivier2
1Groupe mécanismes moléculaires et biomarqueurs, Centre international de recherche sur le cancer (CIRC/IARC), 150, cours Albert-Thomas, 69372 Lyon cedex 08, France; Service de pneumologie aiguë spécialisée et cancérologie thoracique, centre hospitalier Lyon-Sud, hospices civils de Lyon, 165, chemin du Grand-Revoyet, 69495 Pierre-Bénite, France.
None:
Free circulating DNA (cfDNA) has been known for several decades. These small DNA fragments are released into the circulation from nucleated cells through necrosis, apoptosis and/or active secretion. These genomic fragments are mainly constitutional (nucleated blood cell DNA), but in patients with cancer, a fraction comes from tumor cells. Although poorly known in the field of thoracic oncology, quantitative and qualitative analysis of the cDNA is nevertheless of great interest. Total cfDNA concentration appears to be an independent prognostic factor in lung cancer. Although changes in total cfDNA concentration is not informative to assess the effectiveness of chemotherapy, following-up the fraction of mutated genes such as EGFR during therapy with tyrosine kinase inhibitors appears to be particularly promising for the early detection of disease progression. The use of cfDNA as liquid biopsy is also very promising for the non-invasive somatic molecular profile either at baseline either for sampling at follow-up. Thus, cfDNA is a very promising tool in thoracic oncology and its translation into practice should be developed quickly.
