Liquid biopsy can cure early colorectal cancer recurrence - Case Report

Alexander Baraniskin; Hideo A Baba; Dirk Theegarten; Thomas Mika; Roland Schroers; Susanne Klein-Scory

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1141833

Liquid biopsy can cure early colorectal cancer recurrence - Case Report

Front Oncol. 2023 May 3:13:1141833. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1141833. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Alexander Baraniskin^{1

2}, Hideo A Baba³, Dirk Theegarten³, Thomas Mika², Roland Schroers², Susanne Klein-Scory²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hematology and Oncology, Evangelisches Krankenhaus Hamm, Hamm, Germany.
² Department of Medicine, Hematology and Oncology, University Hospital Knappschaftskrankenhaus Bochum GmbH, Ruhr University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
³ Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.

Abstract

In the context of colorectal cancer (CRC), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is frequently used to monitor the minimal residual disease (MRD). ctDNA has become an excellent biomarker to predict which patients with CRC are likely to relapse due to the persistence of micrometastases. MRD diagnosis via analysis of ctDNA may allow much earlier detection of relapse compared with conventional diagnosis during follow-up. It should lead to an increased rate of curative-intended complete resection of an asymptomatic relapse. Besides, ctDNA can provide crucial information on whether and how intensively adjuvant or additive therapy should be administered. In the present case, analysis of ctDNA gave us a crucial hint to the use of more intensive diagnostics (MRI and Positron emission tomography-computed tomography PET-CT) which led to earlier detection of CRC relapse. Metastasis detected early are more likely to be completely resectable with curative intent.

Keywords: PET-CT; Ras; colorectal cancer; ddPCR; follow-up; liquid biopsy; mutation detection; tumor promotor P53 TP53.

Publication types

Case Reports

Grants and funding

The work was supported by financial funding from the Ruhr University Bochum, FoRUM 19-2 6805. The ONCOBEAM measurements were funded by Sysmex Inostics GmbH, Deutschland.