Impact of Whole Genome Doubling on Detection of Circulating Tumor DNA in Colorectal Cancer

Jonas Kabel, Tenna Vesterman Henriksen, Christina Demuth, Amanda Frydendahl, Mads Heilskov Rasmussen, Jesper Nors, Nicolai J Birkbak, Anders Husted Madsen, Uffe S Løve, Per Vadgaard Andersen, Thomas Kolbro, Alessio Monti, Ole Thorlacius-Ussing, Mikail Gögenur, Jeppe Kildsig, Nis Hallundbæk Schlesinger, Peter Bondeven, Lene Hjerrild Iversen, Kåre Andersson Gotschalck, Claus Lindbjerg Andersen

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a candidate biomarker of cancer with practice-changing potential in the detection of both early and residual disease. Disease stage and tumor size affect the probability of ctDNA detection, whereas little is known about the influence of other tumor characteristics on ctDNA detection. This study investigates the impact of tumor cell whole-genome doubling (WGD) on the detection of ctDNA in plasma collected preoperatively from newly diagnosed colorectal cancer (CRC) patients.

METHODS: WGD was estimated from copy numbers derived from whole-exome sequencing (WES) data of matched tumor and normal DNA from 833 Danish CRC patients. To explore if tumor WGD status impacts ctDNA detection, we applied tumor-informed ctDNA analysis to preoperative plasma samples from all patients.

RESULTS: Patients with WGD+ tumors had 53% increased odds of being ctDNA positive (OR = 1.53, 95%CI: 1.12-2.09). After stratification for UICC stage, the association persisted for Stage I (OR = 2.44, 95%CI: 1.22-5.03) and Stage II (OR = 1.76, 95%CI: 1.11-2.81) but not for Stage III (OR = 0.83, 95%CI: 0.44-1.53) patients.

CONCLUSION: The presence of WGD significantly increases the probability of detecting ctDNA, particularly for early-stage disease. In patients with more advanced disease, the benefit of WGD on ctDNA detection is less pronounced, consistent with increased DNA shedding from these tumors, making ctDNA detection less dependent on the amount of ctDNA released per tumor cell.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1136
JournalCancers
Volume15
Issue number4
ISSN2072-6694
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Feb 2023

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