The size of cell-free mitochondrial DNA in blood is inversely correlated with tumor burden in cancer patients. Issue 3 (1st October 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: An, Qin; Hu, Youjin; Li, Qingjiao; Chen, Xufeng; Huang, Jiaoti; Pellegrini, Matteo; Zhou, Xianghong Jasmine; Rettig, Matthew; Fan, Guoping
• Is Part Of: Precision clinical medicine. Volume 2:Issue 3(2019)
• Page Start: 131
• Page End: 139
• Publication Date: 2019-10-01
• Subjects: circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) -- tumor burden -- cancer progression -- liquid biopsy; Medicine -- Periodicals; Medical care -- Periodicals; Personalized medicine -- Periodicals; 610
• DOI: 10.1093/pcmedi/pbz014
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2096-5303

Abstract

Abstract: Circulating cell-free DNAs (cfDNAs) are fragmented DNA molecules released into the blood by cells. Previous studies have suggested that mitochondria-originated cfDNA fragments (mt-cfDNAs) in cancer patients are more fragmented than those from healthy controls. However, it is still unknown where these short mt-cfDNAs originate, and whether the length of mt-cfDNAs can be correlated with tumor burden and cancer progression. In this study, we first performed whole-genome sequencing analysis (WGS) of cfDNAs from a human tumor cell line-xenotransplantation mouse model and found that mt-cfDNAs released from transplanted tumor cells were shorter than the mouse counterpart. We next analyzed blood cfDNA samples from hepatocellular carcinoma and prostate cancer patients and found that mt-cfDNA lengths were inversely related to tumor size as well as the concentration of circulating tumor DNA. Our study suggested that monitoring the size of mt-cfDNAs in cancer patients would be a useful way to estimate tumor burden and cancer progression.