Postoperative MRD status Refines Recurrence Risk Stratification Beyond Pathologic Response After Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy for ESCC.
A blood test for tumor DNA three weeks after esophageal cancer surgery identifies patients at highest recurrence risk far better than current surgical pathology assessments.
In 93 locally advanced ESCC patients, a tumor-informed ctDNA MRD assay at 3–4 weeks post-esophagectomy dramatically stratifies 1-year recurrence risk (66.7% MRD+ vs 6.1% MRD-), completely superseding the discriminatory value of pathologic complete response. These findings establish post-surgical ctDNA MRD as a candidate biomarker to guide adjuvant therapy allocation in ESCC, pending prospective validation.
What the study was
- Study design
- Post-hoc analysis of prospective preSINO trial
- Population
- Locally advanced ESCC patients post-nCRT and esophagectomy, 2019–2023
- Sample size
- 93
- Category
- Early Detection
- Maturity
- Validated
- Journal
- Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Why it surfaced
ctDNA MRD with HR=13.62 vastly outperforms pCR alone for ESCC recurrence prediction; post-hoc of prospective preSINO trial adds strength; J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg; N=93 limits but finding is dramatic; directly actionable for adjuvant therapy decisions.
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