Publications
British journal of cancerMar 2023 DOI:
10.1038/s41416-023-02233-x

Detection of circulating cell-free HPV DNA of 13 HPV types for patients with cervical cancer as potential biomarker to monitor therapy response and to detect relapse

Mittelstadt, Suzana; Kelemen, Olga; Admard, Jakob; Gschwind, Axel; Koch, André; Wörz, Sarah; Oberlechner, Ernst; Engler, Tobias; Bonzheim, Irina; Staebler, Annette; Weidner, Nicola; Stubenrauch, Frank; Iftner, Thomas; Riess, Olaf; Schroeder, Christopher; Kommoss, Stefan; Ossowski, Stephan
Product Used
Genes
Abstract
HPV-related cervical cancer (CC) is the fourth most frequent cancer in women worldwide. Cell-free tumour DNA is a potent biomarker to detect treatment response, residual disease, and relapse. We investigated the potential use of cell-free circulating HPV-DNA (cfHPV-DNA) in plasma of patients with CC.cfHPV-DNA levels were measured using a highly sensitive next-generation sequencing-based approach targeting a panel of 13 high-risk HPV types.Sequencing was performed in 69 blood samples collected from 35 patients, of which 26 were treatment-naive when the first liquid biopsy sample was retrieved. cfHPV-DNA was successfully detected in 22/26 (85%) cases. A significant correlation between tumour burden and cfHPV-DNA levels was observed: cfHPV-DNA was detectable in all treatment-naive patients with advanced-stage disease (17/17, FIGO IB3-IVB) and in 5/9 patients with early-stage disease (FIGO IA-IB2). Sequential samples revealed a decrease of cfHPV-DNA levels in 7 patients corresponding treatment response and an increase in a patient with relapse.In this proof-of-concept study we demonstrated the potential of cfHPV-DNA as a biomarker for therapy monitoring in patients with primary and recurrent CC. Our findings facilitate the development of a sensitive and precise, non-invasive, inexpensive, and easily accessible tool in CC diagnosis, therapy monitoring and follow-up.
Product Used
Genes

Related Publications