Detection and discrimination of intracranial tumors using plasma cell-free DNA methylomes.

A cell-free DNA-methylation sequencing assay accurately identifies different brain tumor types using plasma samples. Definitive diagnosis of intracranial tumors relies on tissue specimens obtained by invasive surgery. Noninvasive diagnostic approaches provide an opportunity to avoid surgery and mitigate unnecessary risk to patients. In the present study, we show that DNA-methylation profiles from plasma reveal highly specific signatures to detect and accurately discriminate common primary intracranial tumors that share cell-of-origin lineages and can be challenging to distinguish using standard-of-care imaging.