title: [Quantification of circulating plasma DNA fragments as tumor markers in patients with esophageal and gastric cancer].
abstract: The quantity and quality of circulating DNA fragments was analyzed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reactions (qPCR) in plasma from patients with esophageal and gastric cancer, in order to assess their diagnostic value. Plasma was collected preoperatively from 24 patients with esophageal cancer 53 patients with gastric cancer and from 21 healthy controls. qPCR was performed using two primer sets for the BETA-actin gene, amplifying short (102 bp) and long (253 bp) segments. The DNA concentrations in both the short and long segment assays of both cancer patients were significantly higher than the controls. The difference of concentrations between disease group and controls was more significant in esophageal cancer patients. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve was 0.83 (short) and 0.91 (long) for esophageal cancer patients, and 0.75 (short) and 0.67 (long) for gastric cancer versus the controls. There was also a significant difference in DNA integrity (short/long) between esophageal cancer patients and the control group (p = 0.001). qPCR assays for plasma DNA concentrations and their integrity can serve as new diagnostic markers for screening and monitoring patients with esophageal and gastric cancer.
authors.affiliation: Division of Digestive Surgery, Dept. of Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine.
authors.forename: Haruhisa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tomita
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ichikawa
authors.forename: Soujin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sai
authors.forename: Rei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Morimura
authors.forename: Yasutoshi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Murayama
authors.forename: Shuhei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Komatsu
authors.forename: Daito
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ikoma
authors.forename: Nobuyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tani
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ikoma
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
authors.forename: Shojiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: Kazuma
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Toshiya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ochiai
authors.forename: Yukihito
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kokuba
authors.forename: Chohei
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sakakura
authors.forename: Teruhisa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sonoyama
authors.forename: Akeo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hagiwara
authors.forename: Eigo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Otsuji
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics*; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor