AAV8-mediated sVEGFR2 and sVEGFR3 gene therapy combined with chemotherapy reduces the growth and microvasculature of human ovarian cancer and prolongs the survival in mice.

Background: Vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) are major regulators of intratumoral angiogenesis in ovarian cancer (OVCA). Overexpression of VEGFs is associated with increased tumor growth and metastatic tendency and VEGF-targeting therapies are thus considered as potential treatments for OVCA. Here, we examined the antiangiogenic and antitumoral effects on OVCA of adeno-associated virus 8 (AAV8)-mediated expression of soluble VEGF receptors (sVEGFRs) sVEGFR2 and sVEGFR3 together with paclitaxel and carboplatin chemotherapy.

Circulating Cell-Free DNA Reflects the Clonal Evolution of Breast Cancer Tumors.

Liquid biopsy of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is proposed as a potential method for the early detection of breast cancer (BC) metastases and following the clonal evolution of BC. Though the use of liquid biopsy is a widely discussed topic in the field, only a few studies have demonstrated such usage so far. We sequenced the DNA of matched primary tumor and metastatic sites together with the matched cfDNA samples from 18 Eastern Finnish BC patients and investigated how well cfDNA reflected the clonal evolution of BC interpreted from tumor DNA.

High Cell-Free DNA Integrity Is Associated with Poor Breast Cancer Survival.

Background: A recent point of focus in breast cancer (BC) research has been the utilization of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and its concentration (cfDConc) and integrity (cfDI) as potential biomarkers. Though the association of cfDConc and poor survival is already recognized, studies on the prognostic value of cfDI have had contradictory results. Here, we provide further evidence to support the use of cfDI as a potential biomarker.

High mutation burden of circulating cell-free DNA in early-stage breast cancer patients is associated with a poor relapse-free survival.

Background: High tumor mutation burden is shown to be associated with a poor clinical outcome. As the tumor-derived fraction of circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is shown to reflect the genetic spectrum of the tumor, we examined whether the mutation burden of cfDNA could be used to predict the clinical outcomes of early-stage breast cancer (BC) patients.

Methods: We selected a set of 79 Finnish early-stage BC cases with a good prognosis based on traditional prognostic parameters but some of which still developed relapsed disease during follow-up.