| The following article features coverage from the SGO 2022 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer. Click here to read more of Cancer Therapy Advisor’s conference coverage. |
Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA)-based surveillance can detect progression of ovarian cancer earlier than conventional surveillance methods, according to researchers.
The team found that ctDNA could detect progression an average of 41 days earlier than conventional methods.
These findings were presented at the SGO 2022 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer by Jinho Heo, MD, of Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, Korea.
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The researchers analyzed 352 whole blood samples from 172 patients. The cohort included 93 patients with high- or low-grade serous, mucinous, clear cell, or endometrioid carcinoma and 79 patients with benign or borderline ovarian disease.
The researchers performed next-generation sequencing using a panel targeting 9 genes — ARID1A, BRCA1, BRCA2, CCNE1, KRAS, MYC, PIK3CA, PTEN, and TP53.
The team found that none of the patients with benign or borderline ovarian disease had pathogenic (tier I/II) mutations in baseline samples.
However, 69.9% of patients with carcinoma had tier I/II somatic mutations at baseline. Mutations were observed in TP53, BRCA1, BRCA2, ARID1A, MYC, PIK3CA, PTEN, and KRAS.
The researchers detected 76 tier I/II somatic mutations in tissue samples from 42 of the patients, and 90.8% of these mutations were detected in matched whole blood ctDNA samples as well.
There were 10 carcinoma patients who had disease progression, and 8 of them had the same mutations at progression as they did at baseline.
In these 8 patients, ctDNA would have detected progression an average of 41 days earlier than conventional surveillance methods, according to the researchers.
In one patient with stage IV high-grade serous ovarian cancer, progression would have been detected up to 143 days earlier with ctDNA than with conventional methods.
“Our study suggests that ctDNA-based surveillance may serve an important role in the detection of disease progression in ovarian cancer, providing genetic characteristics of cancer,” Dr Heo said.
He noted that additional studies are warranted to determine the applicability of ctDNA in clinical decision-making.
Disclosures: Dr Heo reported having no conflicts of interest.
Read more of Cancer Therapy Advisor’s coverage of SGO 2022 by visiting the conference page.
Reference
Heo J, Kim Y-N, Lee J-Y, et al. Efficacy, prognostic value of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in ovarian cancer patients. Presented at SGO 2022; March 18-21, 2022. Abstract 122.
