Utilising Circulating Tumour DNA (ctDNA) to optimise the adjuvant therapy and follow-up of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer

直肠癌术后患者的管理面临着多重困境：应该给予何种治疗，哪些患者应该给予何种治疗？我们在结直肠癌患者中的初步研究表明，一种新的血液生物标志物（循环肿瘤DNA）可以准确预测患者复发的风险，并且通过连续样本，可以表明化疗是否有效。在随访期间，这种生物标志物的变化有望成为癌症复发的特异性和非常早期的指标。

The management of patients after surgery for rectal cancer presents multilpe dilemmas; what treatment should be given and to which patients? Our initial studies in colorectal cancer patients demonstrate that a novel blood biomarker (circulating tumour DNA) can accurately predict patient risk of recurrence and with serial samples, can indicate whether chemotherapy is being effective. During follow-up changes in this biomarker promise to be a specific and very early indicator of cancer recurrence.