Liquid biopsy, using a novel DNA methylation signature, distinguishes pancreatic adenocarcinoma from benign pancreatic disease
Lukáš Vrba, Bernard W. Futscher, Marc M. Oshiro, George S. Watts, Emmanuel Menashi, Charles Hu, Hytham Hammad, Daniel R. Pennington, Umamaheshwari Golconda, Hemanth Gavini, Denise J. Roe, Rachna T. Shroff, Mark A. Nelson
Abstract
We tested the ability of a novel DNA methylation biomarker set to distinguish metastatic pancreatic cancer cases from benign pancreatic cyst patients and to monitor tumor dynamics using quantitative DNA methylation analysis of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from blood samples. The biomarkers were able to distinguish malignant cases from benign disease with high sensitivity and specificity (AUC = 0.999). Furthermore, the biomarkers detected a consistent decline in tumor-derived cfDNA in samples from patients undergoing chemotherapy. The study indicates that our liquid biopsy assay could be useful for management of pancreatic cancer patients.