Alter circulating cell-free DNA variables in plasma of ovarian cancer patients

Liquid biopsy shows great potential in the fields of early diagnosis and prognosis in cancer. Ovarian cancer (OC) is the seventh most common cancer and the eighth most common cause of death from cancer in women. The early diagnosis of OC is vital for subsequent treatment and outcome. Here we investigated two markers: cell-free DNA concentration (cfDNA conc) and cell-free DNA integrity (cfDI) between OC patients and healthy controls.

Age-matched OC patients and healthy controls were enrolled in this study. In total, there are 20 patients and 20 healthy controls. cfDNA conc and cfDI were calculated by arthrobacter luteus (ALU) gene using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

An increased cfDNA conc in OC patients compared to healthy controls was observed (mean cfDNA conc for OC patients: 1.98 ng/μL, for healthy control: 0.51 ng/μL, P = 0.02). For cfDI, the median value of OC patients is 0.49 while the median value of healthy control is 0.61 (P = 0.038). The diagnostic value of area under the curve was 0.86 for cfDNA conc and 0.72 for cfDI. When cfDNA conc and cfDI were combined, the diagnostic value was 0.90 which indicates a good diagnostic marker.

As few reports of cfDNA conc and cfDI differences between OC patients and healthy controls reported, our study shows increased cfDNA concentrations and decreased cfDI in OC patients compared to healthy controls. We also propose that cfDNA biomarkers can be potential diagnostic markers in ovarian cancer.