Integrated Urine and Plasma DNA Analysis for Molecular Staging of Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma.
Tumor DNA in urine and blood samples may better predict whether bladder cancer has spread into muscle, helping guide treatment decisions.
A 41-patient prospective study from Johns Hopkins demonstrated that integrated urine and plasma tumor DNA analysis substantially improves molecular staging of UTUC over standard clinical assessment, with an OR of 8.5 for predicting muscle-invasive disease by multivariable analysis. The composite liquid biopsy approach improved specificity and PPV for guiding neoadjuvant chemotherapy selection, with equivalent sensitivity to standard-of-care biopsy and imaging.
What the study was
- Study design
- Prospective validation cohort study
- Population
- Adults with nonmetastatic upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC)
- Sample size
- 41
- Category
- Early Detection
- Maturity
- Validated
- Journal
- European Urology Oncology
Why it surfaced
Novel integrated liquid biopsy approach for molecular staging of UTUC; composite utDNA+ctDNA significantly outperforms SOC for muscle-invasive prediction; strong OR (8.5) despite small n=41; directly applicable to neoadjuvant chemotherapy decisions.
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