Concordance between whole exome sequencing of circulating tumor DNA and tumor tissue.

Next generation sequencing of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has been used as a noninvasive alternative for cancer diagnosis and characterization of tumor mutational landscape. However, low ctDNA fraction and other factors can limit the ability of ctDNA analysis to capture tumor-specific and actionable variants. In this study, whole-exome sequencings (WES) were performed on paired ctDNA and tumor biopsy in 15 cancer patients to assess the extent of concordance between mutational profiles derived from the two source materials.

Breast Cancer Sera Changes in Alu Element Methylation Predict Metastatic Disease Progression.

Background/aim: During metastatic disease development, the cancer-immune system crosstalk induces epigenetic modifications to immune cells, impairing their functions. Recently, Alu elements methylation changes were widely studied in terms of early cancer detection. This study aimed to demonstrate in vitro Alu element methylation changes in peripheral immune cells in a metastatic setting and examine their prognostic values in metastatic breast cancer.

Results of intraoperative radiotherapy given as a boost after breast conserving-surgery.

Background: Whole breast irradiation after breast-conserving surgery (BCS) with an external beam boost of 10-16 Gy is currently the standard treatment in breast cancer. Various modalities have been used for tumor bed boost irradiation. This study aimed to evaluate the local recurrence rate, overall survival rate (OSR), toxicity and cosmetic outcome of intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) as a boost followed by whole breast irradiation in patients who received BCS.