Perioperative Circulating Tumor Dna Analysis To Predict Patient Prognosis In Liver Cancer.

4593 Background: Resection is a major method for early-stage liver cancer patients. Unfortunately, there still a few patients with post-operation recurrences. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) had been reported as a biomarker in reflecting tumor load and treatment efficacy in some cancer species. Here, we report an application of ctDNA in the perioperative period of liver cancer using targeted sequencing with a 1021-gene panel. Methods: 97 patients diagnosed with liver cancer were enrolled in this study. Postoperative peripheral blood samples were collected within 7 days after surgery and analyzed using hybridization capture based NGS ERSeq method from all patients. Whether a mutant gene was detected in the peripheral blood was defined as ctDNA(+) and ctDNA(-), respectively. Results: Multivariate Cox analysis showed that the post-operation ctDNA was an independent poor prognostic predictor (AFP, RR: 1.0002, 95% Cl: 1.0001-1.0002; ctDNA, RR: 3.738, Cl: 1.872-7.691). 21 patients were ctDNA(+), and all of them had recurrenced (21/21, 100%), while 76 patients were ctDNA(-), and only 12 (12/76, 15.8%) patients had recurrenced. The median disease-free survival time was 5.0 months in ctDNA(+) group and the ctDNA(-) group had not reach the median time (Log-rank test, P < 0.0001). ctDNA combined with AFP would effectively predict the prognosis of patients after surgery. AFP(H) ( > = 400 ng/mL) and ctDNA(+) patients have the worst prognosis and all of the patients had relapsed, while AFP(L) ( < 400 ng/mL) and ctDNA(-) patients had the best prognosis, with less than 20% of patients had relapsed (Log-rank test, P < 0.0001). The median disease-free survival time was 2.0, 6.0 and 7.0 months in ctDNA(+)-AFP(H) (n = 8), ctDNA(-)-AFP(H) (n = 30) and ctDNA(+)-AFP(L) (n = 13) groups, respectively, while ctDNA(-)-AFP(L) group (n = 46) had not reach the median time statistically (Log-rank test, P = 0.0364). Conclusions: In summary, Perioperative ctDNA detection has great potential value clinically, and it also suggests that patients with positive ctDNA after surgery should receive some adjuvant treatments as soon as possible to improve the survival time.