Detection of Plasma Circulating Tumor DNA in Gastric Cancer

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common cancer worldwide and the third leading cause of cancer deaths. Earlier detection of GC can dramatically increases the five-year survival rate up to \> 90%. The current endoscopy and tissue biopsy remain excessively expensive for middle-income nations, in addition to being fairly invasive, with possible complications. Additionally, most of serum-based biomarkers such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), carbohydrate antigen 72-4 (CA72-4), and carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) are not recommended for detection of GC due to the limit of specificity and sensitivity in the early stages of GC. Thus, it is essential to identify new biomarkers for diagnosis of early stages of GC. In this study, the investigators develop an ultradeep massive parallel sequencing (MPS) assay to detect tumor derived mutations (TDM) in plasma of early stages of GC. This study provides proof-of-principle for eventual clinical employment of circulating DNA, via liquid biopsy, for detection of early stages of GC.