Onkologie. 2020:14(3):122-125 | DOI: 10.36290/xon.2020.024
Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) is extracellular DNA which can be found in peripheral blood of patients suffering from malignancies. A liquid biopsy as a method of its non-invasive assessment might be potentially useful in clinical practice especially in cases when there is no available source of tumour DNA for genotyping or when a sampling could be problematic due to technical issues or a patient´s condition. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of ctDNA might improve diagnostics and management of a disease and contribute to more personalised healthcare. It can be used in diagnostic screening for mutations, during therapy and at the end of treatment hand in hand with PET/CT imaging, as well as during follow-up. Better understanding of clonal evolution might help to identify patients resistant to checkpoint blockade.
Published: June 2, 2020 Show citation