Plasma cfDNA for the Diagnosis and Prognosis of Colorectal Cancer

Zhiwei Wu; Lijiang Yu; Juan Hou; Lihua Cui; Yufeng Huang; Qing Chen; Yan Sun; Wangkun Lu; Chenggong Zhang; Di Sun

doi:10.1155/2022/9538384

Plasma cfDNA for the Diagnosis and Prognosis of Colorectal Cancer

J Oncol. 2022 May 31:2022:9538384. doi: 10.1155/2022/9538384. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Zhiwei Wu¹, Lijiang Yu¹, Juan Hou¹, Lihua Cui¹, Yufeng Huang¹, Qing Chen¹, Yan Sun¹, Wangkun Lu¹, Chenggong Zhang¹, Di Sun²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oncology, The Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University, Jingjiang People's Hospital, Taizhou, Jiangsu, China.
² Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University, Jingjiang People's Hospital, Taizhou, Jiangsu, China.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the value of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) for the diagnosis and prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC).

Methods: Peripheral blood specimens of 120 CRC patients and 90 healthy volunteers (as a control cohort) were extracted. A quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed to determine the cfDNA expression. Following correlation analyses for cfDNA and clinical endpoints, a receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was established to assess the sensitivity and specificity of cfDNA, CEA, VEGF, and CA125 and for evaluating the disease-free survival (DFS) of patients.

Results: The plasma cfDNA level of colorectal cancer patients was significantly higher than that of healthy subjects (P < 0.05), and after chemotherapy, cfDNA level was significantly lower than that before chemotherapy (P < 0.05). CA125/CEA/VEGF expression significantly correlated with cfDNA level, but not with cfDNA integrity. There was also a significant correlation between tumor differentiation and the cfDNA level. cfDNA has a higher ROC value than the current tumor biomarkers. Survival analysis showed that the DFS of the low cfDNA expression group was longer (29.99 ± 0.78 months) than that of the high cfDNA expression group (27.66 ± 1.05 months, P=0.031).

Conclusion: The blood cfDNA is associated with the pathological features of CRC clinical cases and represents a possible indicator for CRC diagnosis and prognosis.