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‹ Wed · 17 Jun 2026
Promising but preliminary

Longitudinal genome-wide aneuploidy measurements in circulating cell-free DNA to predict lack of benefit from pembrolizumab in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer.

Changes in cancer cell fragments in blood predict which patients will fail immunotherapy early, enabling timely switch to salvage treatments in bladder cancer.

This study shows that longitudinal genome-wide aneuploidy measurements in plasma cfDNA can predict which metastatic urothelial cancer patients will fail pembrolizumab immunotherapy, enabling earlier treatment switches. The non-invasive monitoring approach addresses a critical need for liquid biopsy-based immunotherapy response prediction in a setting with limited effective salvage options.

What the study was

Study design
Longitudinal cfDNA biomarker study in metastatic urothelial cancer patients receiving pembrolizumab
Population
Metastatic urothelial cancer patients treated with pembrolizumab
Category
Diagnostics
Maturity
Exploratory
Journal
Molecular Oncology

Why it surfaced

Longitudinal cfDNA aneuploidy for immunotherapy response prediction is clinically actionable if validated in larger cohorts; urothelial cancer is a high-mortality disease. Score capped at 7 pending sample size information.

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