PLoS ONE (Jan 2022)

Cell-free tumor DNA, CA125 and HE4 for the objective assessment of tumor burden in patients with advanced high-grade serous ovarian cancer.

  • Florian Heitz,
  • Sotirios Lakis,
  • Philipp Harter,
  • Sebastian Heikaus,
  • Jalid Sehouli,
  • Jatin Talwar,
  • Roopika Menon,
  • Beyhan Ataseven,
  • Miriam Bertrand,
  • Stephanie Schneider,
  • Erika Mariotti,
  • Mareike Bommert,
  • Judith N Müller,
  • Sonia Prader,
  • Frauke Leenders,
  • Alexandra Hengsbach,
  • Christian Gloeckner,
  • Elena Ioana Braicu,
  • Lukas C Heukamp,
  • Andreas du Bois,
  • Johannes M Heuckmann

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262770
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 2
p. e0262770

Abstract

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BackgroundThe present prospective study aimed at determining the impact of cell-free tumor DNA (ct-DNA), CA125 and HE4 from blood and ascites for quantification of tumor burden in patients with advanced high-grade serous epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC).MethodsGenomic DNA was extracted from tumor FFPE and ct-DNA from plasma before surgery and on subsequent post-surgical days. Extracted DNA was subjected to hybrid-capture based next generation sequencing. Blood and ascites were sampled before surgery and on subsequent post-surgical days. 20 patients (10 undergoing complete resection (TR0), 10 undergoing incomplete resection (TR>0)) were included.ResultsThe minor allele frequency (MAF) of TP53 mutations in ct-DNA of all patients with TR0 decreased significantly, compared to only one patient with TR>0. It was not possible to distinguish between patients with TR0 and patients with TR>0, using CA125 and HE4 from blood and ascites.ConclusionsBased upon the present findings, ct-DNA assessment in patients with high-grade serous EOC might help to better determine disease burden compared to standard tumor markers. Further studies should prospectively evaluate whether this enhancement of accuracy can help to optimize management of patients with EOC.