Results & Experiences
We have been investigating ctDNA from patients' blood since 2009. We gained experience with patients with various types of cancer (lungs, pancreas, stomach, head and neck). Still, we found out the best application for colorectal cancer patients for whom oncoMonitor™ was primarily developed.
So far, in several extensive research studies, we have examined more than 500 such patients for the presence of ctDNA, and in at least 30 of them, we conducted long-term postoperative monitoring of ctDNA levels.
Our results suggest that ctDNA can play a very important role in cases that other diagnostic methods (CT or ultrasound, or tumor marker levels) do not detect the new tumor site, or if the result of such examination is not entirely clear. Such a situation may occur, for example, due to anatomical changes in the liver structure, post-operative scars, and the like.
In the group of patients with long-term follow-up of ctDNA, 20 cases of disease relapse were reported. We detected this relapse in 18 cases using ctDNA detection, while in four of them, the imaging methods did not identify the new tumor site.