Mutation tracking in circulating tumor DNA predicts relapse in early breast cancer

The identification of early-stage breast cancer patients at high risk of relapse would allow tailoring of adjuvant therapy approaches. We assessed whether analysis of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in plasma can be used to monitor for minimal residual disease (MRD) in breast cancer. In a prospective cohort of 55 early breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy, detection of ctDNA in plasma after completion of apparently curative treatment-either at a single postsurgical time point or with serial follow-up plasma samples-predicted metastatic relapse with high accuracy [hazard ratio, 25.1 (confidence interval, 4.08 to 130.5; log-rank P

• BC
  Breast Cancer Research Foundation
• CR
  Cancer Research UK

  Award: C30746/A16642