Perioperative Dynamic Changes in Circulating Tumor DNA in Patients
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Published OnlineFirst August 22, 2019; DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-19-1213 Precision Medicine and Imaging Clinical Cancer Research Perioperative Dynamic Changes in Circulating Tumor DNA in Patients with Lung Cancer (DYNAMIC) Kezhong Chen1, Heng Zhao1, Yanbin Shi2, Fan Yang1, Lien Tu Wang2, Guannan Kang1, Yuntao Nie1, and Jun Wang1 Abstract Purpose: No study has investigated the precise periop- Results: Thirty-six patients showed detectable mutations erative dynamic changes in circulating tumor DNA in time A. The plasma ctDNA concentration showed a rapid (ctDNA) in any patients with early-stage cancer. This decreasing trend after radical tumor resection, with the aver- study (DYNAMIC) investigated perioperative dynamic age mutant allele fraction at times A, B, C, and D being changes in ctDNA and determined the appropriate detec- 2.72%, 2.11%, 1.14%, and 0.17%, respectively. The median tion time of ctDNA-based surveillance for surgical ctDNA half-life was 35.0 minutes. Patients with minimal patients with lung cancer. residual disease (MRD) detection had a significant slower Experimental Design: Consecutive patients who under- ctDNA half-life than those with negative MRD (103.2 min- went curative-intent lung resections were enrolled prospec- utes vs. 29.7 minutes, P ¼ 0.001). The recurrence-free survival tively (NCT02965391). Plasma samples were obtained at of patients with detectable and undetectable ctDNA concen- multiple prespecified time points including before surgery trations at time P1 was 528 days and 543 days, respectively (time A), during surgery after tumor resection (time B–time (P ¼ 0.657), whereas at time P2 was 278 days and 637 days, D), and after surgery (time P1–time P3). Next-generation respectively (P ¼ 0.002). sequencing–based detection platform was performed Conclusions: ctDNA decays rapidly after radical tumor to calculate the plasma mutation allele frequency. The resection. The ctDNA detection on the third day after R0 primary endpoint was ctDNA half-life after radical tumor resection can be used as the baseline value for postoperative resection. lung cancer surveillance. Introduction circulating fetal DNA was 16.3 minutes (8); they also investigated the median half-life of plasma Epstein–Barr virus DNA after Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) are short DNA fragments surgical resection was 139 minutes (9). Nevertheless, in patients providing a comprehensive view of the tumor as were shed by with cancer, the mechanism of DNA clearance from plasma is tumor cells from multiple tumor regions (1). Application of poorly understood and it is not known how surgery influences ctDNA analysis has shown its clinical value for detecting molec- ctDNA release and clearance; whether the presence of ctDNA ular profiling, monitoring disease progress, and predicting treat- after surgery is due to MRD or incomplete vanishment is unclear ment response in patients with advanced stage cancer (1–3). A few (10). No criteria have been established regarding the appropriate studies have also proved that in patients with early-stage cancer, time for ctDNA detection as postoperative surveillance, con- the detection of ctDNA may reveal minimal residual disease founding data interpretations, and the practical use of ctDNA (MRD) and identify patients who may be at higher risk of in clinics (11). relapse (4–6). However, few study investigated the half-life of Therefore, we designed this prospective cohort study ctDNA in patients with cancer (7). Lo and colleagues investigated (Dynamic/PTHO1602) to investigate perioperative dynamic the clearance of circulating fetal DNA after delivery by using changes in ctDNA in surgical patients with lung cancer. With quantitative PCR analysis and showed that the mean half-life for the accurate monitoring of ctDNA levels before, during, and after surgery, we explored the half-life of ctDNA and the most suitable time for MRD detection. 1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China. 2Berry Oncology Co., Ltd., Fujian, China. Note: Supplementary data for this article are available at Clinical Cancer Methods Research Online (http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/). Study design and participants Corresponding Author: Jun Wang, Peking University People's Hospital, Xi Zhi Consecutive patients with suspected lung cancers and intent Men South Avenue No. 11, Beijing, 100044, China. Phone: þ86-10-88325952; Fax: þ86-10-68349763; E-mail: [email protected] to undergo curative surgery were enrolled prospectively. All patients had chest CT scans, abdominal and adrenal gland Clin Cancer Res 2019;XX:XX–XX ultrasonograms or CT scans, brain MR images, and bone scans doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-19-1213 before surgery. PET/CT was not mandatory in every patient. Ó2019 American Association for Cancer Research. Eligible patients were aged >18 years with no distant www.aacrjournals.org OF1 Downloaded from clincancerres.aacrjournals.org on September 26, 2021. © 2019 American Association for Cancer Research. Published OnlineFirst August 22, 2019; DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-19-1213 Chen et al. firmed NSCLC. At the same time, a normal lung tissue specimen Translational Relevance was obtained 2 to 3 cm away from the lesion. The enrolled This prospective study showed that the half-life of ctDNA in patients were followed after surgery, and their blood samples patients with radical resected lung cancer was just 35 minutes were obtained at their postoperative review. Samples at each time and detection of ctDNA 3 days after surgery is associated with point were immediately processed to isolate plasma by double disease-free survival. The result will help with clinical decision spinning the blood. First, the sample was centrifuged for 10 making for treating non–small cell lung cancer. First, ctDNA minutes at 1,600 Â g, and peripheral blood lymphocyte debris clearance is more rapid than previously reported. Such rapid were stored at À20C until use. Next, supernatants from these kinetics confirms that ctDNA levels reflect the rate of active samples were centrifuged at 16,000 Â g for 10 minutes, and tumor cell death and is a better biomarker for "real-time" plasma was collected and stored in 2-mL aliquots at À80C until reflection of tumor burden in response to therapy. Second, needed. At least 4-mL solution of plasma per case was available for doctors would be able to foreknow the possibility of recur- this study. cfDNA was extracted from whole plasma within rence before the patient's discharge and plan a precise indi- 4 hours. Quality control was performed by spectroscopic analysis. vidualized treatment and follow-up strategy for each patient as DNA was extracted from tissue and purified plasma samples early as possible. according to the standard protocol formulated for the DNeasy Blood & Tissue kit (Qiagen) and MagMAX Cell-free DNA Isolation Kit (Applied Biosystems). metastasis identified by preoperative examination (cStage I– DNA sequencing workflow IIIA) and no malignant tumor history within the past 5 years, The circulating single-molecule amplification and resequen- whose lesions located in lung were not pure ground glass cing technology (cSMART) is a detection platform based on next- opacity, and neoadjuvant therapy was not performed. The generation sequencing (refs. 16, 17; Fig. 1B). cSMART proceeds exclusion criteria are as followed: (i) multiple primary lung through the following steps: labeling, circularization, inverse PCR cancer; (ii) R1, R2 resection during operation; (iii) histology is amplification, high-throughput sequencing, deredundancy, and not non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); (iv) negative driver counting of DNA fragments to determine the ctDNA content in mutation detected in plasma before surgery (time A); (v) peripheral blood. As previously described (17), DNA libraries germline mutation detected in plasma before surgery (time were constructed using the total fragmented DNA template A); and (vi) unqualified blood samples. The plasma ctDNA extracted from 4 mL of plasma. DNA molecules were end- concentration was assessed in the patient's plasma at multiple modified with a 30 A nucleotide overhang and then ligated with perioperative time points at specific intervals to ensure more 50 T-tailed PCR adaptors. Libraries were generated by 15 cycles of accurate data records. PCR using the thermostable proofreading Pfu DNA polymerase Written informed consent was obtained from each patient for (Promega) with a low sequencing error rate of approximately 1 the use of blood and resected tumor tissue for research purposes in 105 nucleotides. After denaturation of DNA molecules to prior to surgery. This study was approved by Peking University single strands, a bridging oligonucleotide synthesized with end People's Hospital Medical Ethics Committee (2016PHB156-01) sequences complimentary to the PCR adaptors was used to in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and registered in facilitate ligation-mediated circularization with Taq ligase. The ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02965391). The protocol of this study has bridging oligonucleotide was also specifically designed with a been published (12). four-based NNNN code and synthesized as a mixture of degen- erate molecules, which served to randomly and uniquely bar code Surgical technique every single plasma molecule in the library. Hot spot mutations Following the long-term treatment of lung cancer, we summa- within the circularized single-strand molecules were then ampli- rized and optimized our surgical technique (called Wang tech- fied by inverse PCR using primer