CIRculating Cell-free nUcLeic Acids in Cancer Therapy Monitoring -01

Overview

In cooperation with the molecular tumor board of the University Hospital Tübingen (UKT), a prospective collection of blood samples during the course of therapy is planned. It is a pilot study in which the technical feasibility of the approach (Highly Sensitive Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) methods) initially should to be evaluated and further developed.

In this study, we would like to use and further develop Highly Sensitive Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) methods. For this purpose, circulating cell-free nucleic acids (cell free desoxyribonucleic acid (cfDNA) or cell free ribonucleic acid (cfRNA)) are first isolated from the blood plasma. The circulating tumor desoxyribonucleic acid (ctDNA) and circulating tumor ribonucleic acid (ctRNA) fractions contained therein arise from the tumor tissue and can provide information about the existing tumor burden and the original tissue of the tumor. Somatic Single Nucleotide Variants (SNVs) and insertions and deletions (indels) serve as biomarkers within the ctDNA and ctRNA. The ctDNA also contains epigenetic information in the form of DNA methylation, which shows a characteristic pattern for each tissue. Informative regions of the genome can be specifically enriched using personalized or fixed NGS panels. In this way, an ultra-deep sequencing of defined regions can be carried out and even the smallest concentrations of ctDNA and ctRNA in liquid biopsies can be detected.

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Central Contacts