{"id":597981,"date":"2026-08-27T21:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T21:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/597981\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T21:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T21:44:09","slug":"tissue-free-ctdna-assay-may-help-identify-recurrence-risk-in-early-triple-negative-breast-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/597981\/","title":{"rendered":"Tissue-Free ctDNA Assay May Help Identify Recurrence Risk in Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tissue-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assay was strongly prognostic for recurrence in patients treated for triple-negative breast cancer and provided a lead time to recurrence comparable to that of a multivariant tumor-informed assay, according to findings from a prognostic study published by Cunningham et al in JAMA Oncology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese findings support tissue-free ctDNA detection in the molecular residual disease [MRD] setting, allowing testing when archival tissue is unavailable,\u201d the investigators wrote.<\/p>\n

Study Details<\/p>\n

The investigators focused on patients treated for early triple-negative breast cancer at moderate to high risk of recurrence who were participating in the ctDNA surveillance period of the multicenter phase II c-TRAK TN trial. Following completion of adjuvant therapy, plasma samples were collected every 3 months for up to 2 years and prospectively analyzed by digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR). A subsequent retrospective analysis used a whole-exome sequencing\u2013powered multivariant tumor-informed assay, which detected MRD with a longer lead time to relapse than dPCR.<\/p>\n

In this prognostic and exploratory analysis, the investigators retrospectively evaluated 1,026 samples from 159 patients (mean age = 51.4 years; 100% female) using a tissue-free ctDNA assay that leverages cancer differential methylation patterns to detect ctDNA without requiring sequencing of the primary tumor.<\/p>\n

The primary objective was to assess the prognostic significance of tissue-free ctDNA detection for recurrence. Tissue-free assay results were also compared with the dPCR and whole-exome sequencing\u2013powered multivariant tumor-informed assays.<\/p>\n

Key Findings<\/p>\n

A total of 54 (34%) patients had detectable ctDNA by the tissue-free assay; ctDNA detection was strongly associated with recurrence risk (hazard ratio [HR] = 27.2, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 13.7\u201354.2; P\u2009<\u2009.001), the investigators reported.<\/p>\n

Of the 42 (26%) patients with ctDNA detected by both the tissue-free and dPCR assays, detection occurred concurrently with both assays in 28 (66.7%), whereas the tissue-free assay detected ctDNA earlier in 14 (33.3%). The median lead time to recurrence was longer with the tissue-free assay than with dPCR (7.9 [95% CI = 6.1\u201310.5 months] vs 5.8 [95% CI = 3.3\u201310.0 months] months; HR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.34\u20130.95; P\u2009=\u2009.03).<\/p>\n

The investigators described the concordance between the tissue-free and tumor-informed assays as good. Of 41 (30.8%) patients with ctDNA detected by both assays, detection occurred earlier with the tumor-informed assay in 12 (29.3%) and earlier with the tissue-free assay in 1 (2.4%). The median lead times to recurrence with the tissue-free and tumor-informed assays were 7.6 (95% CI = 4.6\u201310.5 months) and 7.1 (95% CI = 5.7\u201310.0 months) months, respectively (HR = 1.46, 95% CI = 0.87\u20132.44; P\u2009=\u2009.15).<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this prognostic study, tissue-free ctDNA detection during surveillance was strongly prognostic for recurrence of triple-negative breast cancer, demonstrating clinical validity in this setting,\u201d the investigators concluded. \u201cThe median lead time of the tissue-free ctDNA assay was similar to a multivariant tumor-informed assay, although the tumor-informed approach detected ctDNA at earlier time points in a greater proportion of patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

They continued, \u201cThese findings support the use of tissue-free assays as a practical alternative in patients for which a tumor-informed assay is not possible. However, the clinical benefit of early MRD detection and intervention remains uncertain, and prospective ctDNA-guided intervention studies are warranted to assess clinical utility of tissue-free assays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicholas C. Turner, MD, PhD, of the Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins Research Centre, the Institute of Cancer Research, London<\/a>, is the corresponding author of the article in JAMA Oncology.<\/p>\n

DISCLOSURE: For full funding information and disclosures of the study authors, visit jamanetwork.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tissue-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assay was strongly prognostic for recurrence in patients treated for triple-negative breast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[163,85,46],"class_list":["post-597981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}