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Getting the latest healthcare news for you
A new analysis of the phase 2 SU2C-SARC032 trial finds that personalized circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) profiling can detect cancer signals in 85% of soft tissue sarcoma patients — a notoriously hard-to-track cancer type. ctDNA levels before, during, and after treatment were strongly tied to disease-free and overall survival. Researchers say the findings could pave the way for ctDNA-guided, personalized treatment strategies.
Soft tissue sarcomas (STSs) have long been a tough nut to crack for liquid biopsy approaches, thanks to their low mutational burden. But a new analysis from the phase 2 SU2C-SARC032 trial, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, shows that personalized ctDNA profiling — built by sequencing each patient's individual tumor — can reliably detect and track circulating tumor DNA in this challenging cancer type.
The approach detected ctDNA in 85% of patients at baseline, and levels correlated with tumor grade, size, and histology. Critically, ctDNA detected before treatment or three months after surgery was strongly linked to worse disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Patients with no detectable ctDNA at baseline had notably strong outcomes, with no deaths recorded during follow-up. The analysis also found that patients treated with pembrolizumab showed greater ctDNA drops after radiotherapy, and that subclonal tumor diversity in post-surgery ctDNA samples predicted even worse outcomes than ctDNA levels alone.
Key Takeaways:
Why it matters: Half of high-risk STS patients develop metastatic disease, and current tools offer limited guidance on who needs more aggressive treatment. Personalized ctDNA monitoring could help clinicians tailor therapy — intensifying it for high-risk patients and sparing others from unnecessary toxicity.
