[HTML][HTML] Multifocal clonal evolution characterized using circulating tumour DNA in a case of metastatic breast cancer

M Murtaza, SJ Dawson, K Pogrebniak… - Nature …, 2015 - nature.com
Nature communications, 2015nature.com
Circulating tumour DNA analysis can be used to track tumour burden and analyse cancer
genomes non-invasively but the extent to which it represents metastatic heterogeneity is
unknown. Here we follow a patient with metastatic ER-positive and HER2-positive breast
cancer receiving two lines of targeted therapy over 3 years. We characterize genomic
architecture and infer clonal evolution in eight tumour biopsies and nine plasma samples
collected over 1,193 days of clinical follow-up using exome and targeted amplicon …
Abstract
Circulating tumour DNA analysis can be used to track tumour burden and analyse cancer genomes non-invasively but the extent to which it represents metastatic heterogeneity is unknown. Here we follow a patient with metastatic ER-positive and HER2-positive breast cancer receiving two lines of targeted therapy over 3 years. We characterize genomic architecture and infer clonal evolution in eight tumour biopsies and nine plasma samples collected over 1,193 days of clinical follow-up using exome and targeted amplicon sequencing. Mutation levels in the plasma samples reflect the clonal hierarchy inferred from sequencing of tumour biopsies. Serial changes in circulating levels of sub-clonal private mutations correlate with different treatment responses between metastatic sites. This comparison of biopsy and plasma samples in a single patient with metastatic breast cancer shows that circulating tumour DNA can allow real-time sampling of multifocal clonal evolution.
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