Prognostic and predictive value of circulating tumor DNA during neoadjuvant chemotherapy for triple negative breast cancer.

Response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is highly prognostic and determines whether adjuvant chemotherapy is needed if residual tumor is found at surgery. To evaluate the predictive and prognostic values of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in this setting, we analyzed tumor and serial bloods from 26 TNBC patients collected prior, during, and after NAC. Individual digital droplet PCR assays were developed for 121 variants (average 5/patient) identified from tumor sequencing, enabling ctDNA detection in 96% of patients at baseline.

Correction: Identifying obesity/overweight status in children and adolescents; A cross-sectional medical record review of physicians' weight screening practice in outpatient clinics, Saudi Arabia.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Identifying obesity/overweight status in children and adolescents; A cross-sectional medical record review of physicians' weight screening practice in outpatient clinics, Saudi Arabia.

Background: BMI is a feasible and recommended measure for overweight and obesity screening in children and adolescents. The study aimed to determine how often physicians correctly identified obesity/ overweight status in children and adolescents by using BMI percentile charts.

Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study reviewed the paper medical records of children and adolescents (6-14 years) who visited family medicine and pediatric outpatient clinics (Jan-June 2012) in a medical city in Riyadh.

A Study of Pre-Analytical Variables and Optimization of Extraction Method for Circulating Tumor DNA Measurements by Digital Droplet PCR.

Background: Circulating free DNA (cfDNA) is an exciting novel method to diagnose, monitor, and predict resistance and response to cancer therapies, with the potential to radically alter the management of cancer patients. To fulfill its potential, greater knowledge about preanalytical variables is required to optimize and standardize the collection process, and maximize the yield and utility of the small quantities of cfDNA extracted.

Methods: To this end, we have compared the cfDNA extraction efficiency of three different protocols, including a protocol developed in house (Jewish General Hospital).