A recent study on 15 patients with synovial sarcoma demonstrated very low prevalence of tumor-specific fusion transcripts in peripheral blood specimens. Our results in an independent cohort of 38 patients with synovial sarcoma support these findings. Synovial sarcoma patients could greatly benefit from a non-invasive monitoring of tumor burden by liquid biopsies. However, given the low detection rate of SS18-SSX1/2 in circulation, we conclude that alternative markers other than the tumor-type specific fusion transcripts should be considered.
Keywords: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs); Liquid biopsy; Nested RT-PCR; SS18-SSX fusion transcript; Synovial sarcoma.