A study for evaluating clinical relevance of circulating cell-free DNA in cervical cancer

Introduction: Recent techniques available for the detection of cervical cancer (CC) are highly invasive and costly, which makes it a rate-limiting step toward early diagnosis of this fatal disease. Evaluation of circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) through liquid biopsy is a minimally invasive and cost-effective method that may serve as a unique tumor marker for early detection, treatment monitoring, the status of residual disease, and distant tumor metastasis in CC patients. Materials and Methods: In this study, initially, ccfDNA was measured in serum samples from 11 histopathologically proven cervix carcinoma patients and 8 controls. On successful screening, it was further extended to 2 more patients with a series of serum samples extracted at 3 different phases of the concurrent chemoradiotherapy (i.e., before, during, and after 6 months of follow-up). Results: Agarose gel electrophoresis profile for ccfDNA of CC patients showed that of 11 patients, 4 patients had a comparatively higher tumor burden (ccfDNA) than the other 7 patients. Notably, during concurrent chemoradiotherapy, ccfDNA load disappeared and, after 6 months of follow-up, appeared back due to distant metastasis. Conclusion: Hence, we propose that this method could be an affordable and reliable way to diagnose/screen CC.