Large Cancer Fingerprint Screening for Detection of Minimal Residual Disease.

We describe an approach for large cancer fingerprint screening and its application to cell-free DNA from patients with cancer. Our approach involves tracking somatic mutations identified from patients' tumor biopsies, in the cell-free DNA from a blood draw.]]>
All patients provided written informed consent to allow the collection of blood and/or tumor tissue and analysis of clinical and genetic data for research purposes. Patients with MBC were prospectively identified for enrollment into tissue analysis and banking cohorts (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute [DFCI] protocol identifiers 05-246, 09-204). From within this cohort we retrospectively identified patients with ER-positive, HER2-negative MBC with plasma and tissue sampling within six months of diagnosis. In the curative-intent cohort, patients participating in two clinical studies were included (DFCI protocols 05-055 and 06-169) given receipt of curative-intent treatment and available biospecimens. From protocol 06-169, we included the first 99 patients enrolled with breast cancer diagnosis at age <35. From 05-055, all study patients were eligible, if tissue and plasma samples were available. All patients had completed adjuvant therapy prior to study entry. At the time of analysis and data cut off, median follow up had reached 7.1 years. Fresh whole blood (10-20 cc) from appropriately consented healthy donors was obtained through Research Blood Components and Boston Biosciences.]]>