Detection and localization of early- and late-stage cancers using tumor-educated platelet RNA

We report RNA-sequencing data of 2351 blood platelet samples, including 1628 patients with stage I-IV cancer (of which 18 different tumor types), 390 asymptomatic controls and 333 symptomatic controls. This dataset highlights the ability of TEP RNA-based 'liquid biopsy' diagnostics for the detection and localization of early- and late-stage cancers. Overall design: Blood platelets were isolated from whole blood in purple-cap BD Vacutainers containing EDTA anti-coagulant by standard centrifugation. Total RNA was extracted from the platelet pellet, subjected to cDNA synthesis and SMARTer amplification, fragmented by Covaris shearing, and prepared for sequencing using the Truseq Nano DNA Sample Preparation Kit. Subsequently, pooled sample libraries were sequenced on the Illumina Hiseq 2500 or 4000 platform. All steps were quality-controlled using Bioanalyzer 2100 with RNA 6000 Picochip, DNA 7500 and DNA High Sensitivity chips measurements. For further downstream analyses, reads were quality-controlled using Trimmomatic, mapped to the humane reference genome using STAR, and intron-spanning reads were summarized using HTseq.