ctDNA Biomarkers for Breast Cancer Diagnostics

Introduction of ctDNA

Breast cancer (BC) is a tumor disease caused by malignant hyperplasia of breast glandular epithelial tissue. In the early diagnosis of BC, compared with mammography and tissue biopsy, blood testing has the advantages of low detection cost, convenience and non-invasiveness, and easy large-scale screening. It can play an important role in the early detection of breast cancer. During the proliferation and continuous cell cycle transformation of BC tumor cells, tumor DNA fragments can enter the blood, and these tumor DNA fragments in the blood are tumor circulating DNA (ctDNA). BC tumors release ctDNA fragments into the systemic circulation with a short half-life of approximately 2 hours. This property makes ctDNA a viable, highly sensitive, and specific biomarker. Through ctDNA analysis, it is helpful for the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of tumor diseases. ctDNA showed better sensitivity compared to other biomarkers in blood.

Fig. 1. ctDNA carries the same genomic (point mutations, insertions/deletions, translocations, copy number variations) and epigenomic (DNA methylation) alterations as tissue tumor DNA. (Vlataki K, et al., 2023)

Biomarkers Development Services

Alfa Cytology is a leading CRO company with extensive experience in BC basic research and biomarkers development. Liquid biopsy of ctDNA from blood samples enables some BC tumor-based genetic information to be obtained at any given time, an approach that avoids invasive biopsy of solid tumors and associated complications. With advanced technology and a professional team, we can provide BC diagnostic development services, including ctDNA biomarkers development for BC diagnostics. Our services include,

• ctDNA isolation and purification

Selection of sample type, sample collection procedure, sample processing, selection of separation and purification methods, our professional scientific research team can help you isolate and purify ctDNA to solve all the problems you encounter in the isolation and purification of ctDNA.

• ctDNA detection

Our ctDNA identification technologies include ultra-sensitive ddPCR, BEAMing, and NGS methods (CAPP-Seq, TAm-Seq, TEC-Seq) that can accurately identify and quantify low-level ctDNA.

Applications of ctDNA in BC

• Early cancer detection
• Monitoring treatment response
• Assess cancer recurrence and response
• BC classification
• Breast tumor heterogeneity analysis

Advantages of Our Services

• Customized services to meet customer needs
• Advanced and professional ctDNA research platform
• Extensive experience in ctDNA biomarker discovery and development
• Efficient and perfect after-sales service

Alfa Cytology is committed to helping our customers develop successful BC diagnostic biomarkers through customized services, powerful platforms, professional analysis, and cross-platform collaboration. As a viable option that can simultaneously capture the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of BC tumors, ctDNA is a biomarker with clinical application value and has broad application prospects in the diagnosis and treatment of BC. If you are interested in learning more about our BC diagnostic development services, please feel free to contact us. Our professional and patient staff will get in touch with you as soon as possible.