Publications by authors named "Kare A Gotschalck"

Objective: This clinical trial investigated the safety and efficacy of single-cycle pembrolizumab in patients with localized deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) colon cancer.

Background: Neoadjuvant immunotherapy has induced remarkable rates of pathological complete response in patients with dMMR colon cancer. However, the optimal length and type of treatment are yet to be determined.

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Background: The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) in individuals younger than 50 years of age (early-onset CRC) is increasing. Early-onset CRC often present at advanced stage, suggesting a more aggressive cancer course compared to late-onset CRC (age 50-79). This nationwide cohort study estimates the incidence of recurrence following early-onset CRC and late-onset CRC.

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Background: Multiple initiatives aim to develop circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) tests for early cancer detection in asymptomatic individuals. The few studies describing ctDNA-testing in both asymptomatic and symptomatic patients report lower ctDNA detection in the asymptomatic patients. Here, we explore if asymptomatic patients differ from symptomatic patients e.

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Article Synopsis
  • Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) can help detect residual cancer after treatment, but its low levels make detection tough; tumor-informed whole-genome sequencing (WGS) offers a solution using numerous mutations for better ctDNA identification.
  • * In a study with 144 stage III colorectal cancer patients and 1283 plasma samples, WGS created a unique mutational fingerprint that improved ctDNA detection and demonstrated excellent reproducibility across labs.
  • * Results showed that ctDNA detection post-surgery and post-chemotherapy strongly predicted cancer recurrence, often identifying it months before standard imaging; the study highlights the potential for WGS to track cancer evolution and treatment effects.*
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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to improve colorectal cancer (CRC) screening by developing a tailored algorithm that combines the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) with blood test results and patient age to better identify individuals needing a colonoscopy.
  • The research involved 1977 participants from Denmark who were FIT-positive and examined eight blood-based biomarkers, discovering that the new algorithm outperformed the traditional FIT-only model in accurately distinguishing between CRC and non-CRC cases.
  • The results indicated that using the combined algorithm could enhance patient selection for colonoscopy, potentially reducing unnecessary procedures and improving healthcare efficiency.
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Background: Timely diagnosis of acute intestinal necrosis (AIN) is lifesaving, but challenging due to unclear clinical presentation. D-lactate has been proposed as an AIN biomarker.

Objectives: We aimed to test the diagnostic performance in a clinical setting.

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The fraction of patients who are cancer-free survivors 5 years after curative-intended surgery for colorectal cancer (CRC) is increasing, suggesting that extending surveillance beyond 5 years may be indicated. Here we estimate the incidence of late recurrence, metachronous CRC, and second primary cancers 5-10 years postoperative. All patients resected for UICC stage I-III CRC in Denmark through 2004-2013 were identified.

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Importance: Management of colorectal cancer (CRC) has been updated continuously over the past 2 decades. While the combination of these initiatives has had implications for improved survival, the implications for rates of recurrence remain unexplored.

Objective: To ascertain the rates of recurrence and describe time to recurrence within 5 years of surgery with curative intent for stages I to III CRC.

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Objective: Acute intestinal necrosis (AIN) is a disease with devastating high mortality. AIN due to obstructed arterial blood flow has a blurred clinical presentation. Timely diagnosis is paramount, and a blood-based biomarker is warranted to increase patient survival.

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Circulating tumor DNA detection using next-generation sequencing (NGS) data of plasma DNA is promising for cancer identification and characterization. However, the tumor signal in the blood is often low and difficult to distinguish from errors. We present DREAMS (Deep Read-level Modelling of Sequencing-errors) for estimating error rates of individual read positions.

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Purpose: Colorectal cancer (CRC) recurrence is not routinely recorded in Danish health data registries. Here, we aimed to revalidate a registry-based algorithm to identify recurrences in a contemporary cohort and to investigate the accuracy of estimating the time to recurrence (TTR).

Patients And Methods: We ascertained data on 1129 patients operated for UICC TNM stage I-III CRC during 2012-2017 registered in the CRC biobank at the Department of Molecular Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark.

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Objective: Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a candidate biomarker of cancer with practice-changing potential in the detection of both early and residual disease. Disease stage and tumor size affect the probability of ctDNA detection, whereas little is known about the influence of other tumor characteristics on ctDNA detection. This study investigates the impact of tumor cell whole-genome doubling (WGD) on the detection of ctDNA in plasma collected preoperatively from newly diagnosed colorectal cancer (CRC) patients.

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BACKGROUND : Screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) using the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) has been widely adopted. The use of antithrombotic treatment is increasing in the Western world. This study aimed to assess the effects of antithrombotic treatment on the FIT-based Danish national screening program for CRC.

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Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) detection for postoperative risk stratification in cancer patients has great clinical potential. However, low ctDNA abundances complicates detection. Multitarget (MT) detection strategies have been developed to increase sensitivity.

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Purpose: Sensitive methods for risk stratification, monitoring therapeutic efficacy, and early relapse detection may have a major impact on treatment decisions and patient management for stage III colorectal cancer patients. Beyond assessing the predictive power of postoperative ctDNA detection, we explored the added benefits of serial analysis: assessing adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) efficacy, early relapse detection, and ctDNA growth rates.

Experimental Design: We recruited 168 patients with stage III colorectal cancer treated with curative intent at Danish and Spanish hospitals between 2014 and 2019.

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Purpose: Primary acute intestinal ischaemia (AII) is an abdominal catastrophe caused by intravascular obstruction of blood supply. It is difficult to diagnose. Computerized tomography (CT) scan is the modality of choice for diagnostic evaluation.

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