Dn. Nunes et al., Circulating tumor-derived DNA may permit the early diagnosis of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas, INT J CANC, 92(2), 2001, pp. 214-219
A series of eight microsatellite loci were assayed for both loss of heteroz
ygosity and new mutated alleles in 91 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
s, In 58 cases, alterations were detected and used as markers for assaying
the presence of circulating tumor-derived DNA in the patients' plasma. This
was unambiguously detected in 17 cases. The probability of detecting circu
lating DNA was independent of tumor stage and was found to be present even
in some individuals with stage I tumors. The presence of such DNA, however,
could not be correlated with disease outcome or other significant clinical
parameters, suggesting that it has no prognostic significance. The results
indicate that circulating tumor-derived DNA could be used as a means of ea
rly diagnosis of head and neck tumors. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.