Abstract

Improving the Detection of Circulating Tumour DNA in Plasma by Selecting Short DNA Fragments

Florent Mouliere, Research Associate, University of Cambridge

The sensitivity for detecting the presence of genomic changes in circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) is limited by its low concentration in plasma. Here I will present new approaches tailoring sequencing to the biological properties of ctDNA for improving the detection of rare mutant molecules. In particular, we studied the feasibility for enrichment of ctDNA by physical and in-silico size selection in plasma samples collected from multiple cancer types. Size selection of short DNA fragments enriches for ctDNA, unlocking un-targeted genome-wide sequencing for liquid biopsy.