Circulating Bacterial DNA: A New Paradigm for Cancer Diagnostics

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Microbiology
• Genomics

Background:

• Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) analysis, including circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), is advancing cancer screening, diagnosis, and monitoring.
• Circulating bacterial DNA (cbDNA) has been identified in plasma and serum of cancer patients across various cancer types.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the potential of cbDNA as a biomarker in cancer detection and prognosis.
• To assess the feasibility of using cbDNA profiles for distinguishing cancer patients from healthy controls, including early-stage disease.

Main Methods:

• Detection and analysis of cbDNA in plasma and serum samples from cancer patients and healthy controls.
• Utilizing pan-cancer studies to evaluate cbDNA for distinguishing between different cancer types and healthy individuals.

Main Results:

• cbDNA detection in breast, gastric, colorectal, hepatocellular, and ovarian cancers.
• Successful distinction between cancer patients and healthy controls based on cbDNA profiles in several studies.
• Demonstrated feasibility of cbDNA to differentiate between four cancer types and healthy controls, even in early stages.

Conclusions:

• cbDNA analysis presents a promising avenue for future liquid biopsy applications in cancer screening and diagnostics.
• Further standardization of laboratory and bioinformatics analyses for cbDNA is required.
• The clinical relevance of cbDNA needs to be ascertained for each specific cancer type.