de Macedo JE, Machado M. Is the determination of ctDNA a scientific “spy” that foresees cancer? World J Respirol 2017; 7(2): 35-38 [DOI: 10.5320/wjr.v7.i2.35]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Joana Espiga de Macedo, MD, Consultant of Medical Oncology, Department of Medical Oncology, Centro Hospitalar de Entre Douro e Vouga, Rua Dr. Cândido de Pinho, 4520-211 Santa Maria Da Feira, Portugal. joana.macedo@chedv.min-saude.pt
Research Domain of This Article
Respiratory System
Article-Type of This Article
Frontier
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Respirol. Jul 28, 2017; 7(2): 35-38 Published online Jul 28, 2017. doi: 10.5320/wjr.v7.i2.35
Is the determination of ctDNA a scientific “spy” that foresees cancer?
Joana Espiga de Macedo, Manuela Machado
Joana Espiga de Macedo, Department of Medical Oncology, Centro Hospitalar de Entre Douro e Vouga, 4520-211 Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal
Manuela Machado, Department of Medical Oncology, Portuguese Institute of Oncology, 4200-072 Oporto, Portugal
Author contributions: de Macedo JE and Machado M contributed to article conception, writing, editing and reviewing the final approval of the article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Joana Espiga de Macedo and Manuela Machado have received fees for serving as a speaker, such as consultant and/or an advisory board member for Celgene, Merck, BMS, Amgen and Roche.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Joana Espiga de Macedo, MD, Consultant of Medical Oncology, Department of Medical Oncology, Centro Hospitalar de Entre Douro e Vouga, Rua Dr. Cândido de Pinho, 4520-211 Santa Maria Da Feira, Portugal. joana.macedo@chedv.min-saude.pt
Telephone: +351-93-6050138 Fax: +351-25-6373867
Received: April 12, 2017 Peer-review started: May 3, 2017 First decision: May 23, 2017 Revised: June 5, 2017 Accepted: June 30, 2017 Article in press: July 1, 2017 Published online: July 28, 2017
Abstract
Since 1948, circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) was first identified in human blood. ctDNA is in fact DNA shed by tumour cells from all metastatic tumour locations throughout the whole body, and is thrown into the bloodstream and can then be isolated by a standard blood draw. Using this technique scientists can obtain a wide view of tumour heterogeneity, identify different mechanisms of drug resistance, what is its predominance and the clinical rational of precision cancer medicine become a part of our daily practice. Secondly, early detection of cancer may also contribute to global decrease in cancer mortality.
Core tip: With the increase development of molecular medicine we may further change our clinical rational to a precise cancer medicine rational way. Consequently, we may improve the quality of life of our patients, with less toxicity, more cost-effectiveness decisions and above all improve response rate and survival. Defining the complete genomic “picture” of all cancerous lesions, in the near future as a standard of care, will require all genetic information concerning each individual cancer.
