Prognostic value of assessing ctDNA in patients with endometrial carcinoma - an international multicenter study

Objective

At present, no reliable blood-based biomarkers have been established for patients with endometrial cancer. Liquid biopsies, which can detect circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), provide a non-invasive way to assess prognosis, monitor tumor evolution and treatment response. We aimed to examine the feasibility and performance of ctDNA as a prognostic tool in a multi-center cohort of EC patients with matched tumor samples.

Methods

Blood plasma samples were collected preoperatively from 83 patients at three European cancer centers. Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) was isolated and analyzed using the Oncomine™ Pan-Cancer cell-free assay. Tumor tissue from 56 of the 83 patients was subjected to whole-exome sequencing, and clinical data were collected for oncological outcome assessment.

Results

The mean input of cfDNA was 8.17 ng (range 1.47–29.12 ng). Sixteen (19.3 %) patients were considered ctDNA positive with mutations in one or more genes. Most alterations detected in plasma were concordant with mutations found in the matched tumor for the paired cases. The preoperative presence of ctDNA was associated with a significantly higher rate of recurrence (37.5 % vs 11.9 %, P = 0.024). Although eight of the 14 (57 %) patients with recurrence were negative for ctDNA at diagnosis, positive ctDNA status remained an independent predictor of recurrence also when controlling for other known histopathologic risk factors (HR 5.49, 95 % CI 1.5–20, P = 0.010).

Conclusions

Our results demonstrated the feasibility of using an off-the-shelf gene panel to detect ctDNA in patients with endometrial cancer. ctDNA positivity was significantly associated with worse oncological outcomes.