• Miaomiao Li, Lan Mi, Chunyang Wang, Xiaojuan Wang, Jianhua Zhu, Fei Qi, Hui Yu, Yingying Ye, Dedao Wang, Jiaowu Cao, Dingyao Hu, Quanyu Yang, Dandan Zhao, Tonghui Ma, Yuqin Song, and Jun Zhu.
• Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Lymphoma, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing, 100142, China.
• Bmc Med. 2022 Oct 25; 20 (1): 369.

BackgroundCirculating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has been proven to be a promising tumor-specific biomarker in solid tumors, but its clinical utility in risk stratification and early prediction of relapse for diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) has not been well explored.MethodsHere, using a lymphoma-specific sequencing panel, we assessed the prognostic and predictive utilities of ctDNA measurements before, during, and after first-line therapy in 73 Chinese DLBCL patients.ResultsThe pretreatment ctDNA level serving as an independent prognostic factor for both progression-free survival (PFS, adjusted HR 2.47; p = 0.004) and overall survival (OS, adjusted HR 2.49; p = 0.011) was confirmed in our cohort. Furthermore, the patients classified as molecular responders who presented a larger decrease in ctDNA levels after the initial two treatment cycles had more favorable PFS (unreached vs. 6.25 months; HR 5.348; p = 0.0015) and OS (unreached vs. 25.87; HR 4.0; p = 0.028) than non-responders. In addition, interim ctDNA clearance may be an alternative noninvasive method of positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET-CT) for predicting better PFS (HR 3.65; p = 0.0033) and OS (HR 3.536; p = 0.016). We also demonstrated that posttreatment ctDNA was a sensitive indicator for detecting minimal residual disease (MRD) in patients with a high risk of recurrence (HR 6.471; p = 0.014), who were otherwise claimed to achieve radiographic CR (complete remission).ConclusionsCtDNA is a promising noninvasive tool for prognosis prediction, response assessment, and early relapse prediction of first-line treatment in DLBCL patients.© 2022. The Author(s).

17 keywords...

hide…