Recent research efforts focus on circulating "tumor" DNA (ctDNA) fragments in the blood to develop diagnostic tests.
Abundant literature highlights the lack of reproducibility, the poor sensitivity and limited clinical utility of these tests.
Some ctDNA limitations stem from:
These limitations of ctDNA raise questions about its clinical value for patients!
Finding circulating tumor DNA fragments in the blood is like sifting for a single grain of sand from among the countless on an ocean beach because of the huge amount of nonspecific cDNA from dead cells.