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Workshop on Minimal Residual Disease

Tumor-related alterations in circulating DNA, potential for diagnosis, prognosis and detection of minimal residual disease

Leukemia volume 15, pages 289–291 (2001)Cite this article

Cancer is characterized by an accumulation of genetic changes. Chromosomal abnormalities, including mutations, insertions, deletions, allelic losses of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, microsatellite alterations, hypermethylation of promoter genes have been discovered in cancer cell DNA. The application of molecular biological techniques, since the advent of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), allows us to identify these alterations in tumors. The discovery of circulating DNA in the plasma opened the possibility to detect tumor-related alterations in a medium which is in direct contact with all organs: blood.

DNA is present in increased amounts in plasma/serum DNA of cancer patients. Leon et al1 found that cancer patients tended to have higher levels of circulating DNA than healthy controls. The level of free DNA in the serum of 173 patients with various types of cancer, and in 55 healthy individuals, was determined by a radioimmunoassay. DNA concentration in the normal controls had a mean of 13 ng/ml, while in the cancer patients the mean was 180 ng/ml. Significantly higher DNA levels were found in the serum of patients with metastases compared to localized disease. Furthermore, DNA levels decreased by up to 90% following radiotherapy, in lymphoma, lung, ovary, uterus and cervical tumors. Persistently high or increasing DNA levels were associated with a lack of response to treatment.

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  1. Department of Plant Biochemistry and Physiology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    P Anker & M Stroun

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Anker, P., Stroun, M. Tumor-related alterations in circulating DNA, potential for diagnosis, prognosis and detection of minimal residual disease. Leukemia 15, 289–291 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2402016

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