Detecting Cancer with Cell-Free DNA Fragmentation

A section of the DNA fragmentation profile of cell-free DNA from a cancer patient plotted over a healthy profile. Imagine, taking a simple blood draw to find out if you have cancer, and if so, the cancer's location and molecular type. While this scenario may have sounded like science fiction not long ago, liquid biopsies are now an exciting, tangible, area of cancer research. I spoke with two researchers who have developed an approach to detect cancer from cell-free DNA by looking at DNA fragmentation: Robert B. Scharpf, PhD, associate professor of oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center and Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Victor E. Velculescu, MD, PhD, professor of oncology, pathology, and medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Their study, published in Nature earlier this year, demonstrates the feasibility of liquid biopsies using DNA fragmentation profiles.