Serum Cell Free Dna By Branched Dna In Patients With Gastric Cancer

The study aim was to quantify cell free DNA (cf-DNA) in patients with gastric cancer by a branched DNA (bDNA) assay and to analyze the relationship between serum cf-DNA levels and clinical and pathological features in an attempt to explore the value of early screening and aided diagnosis of cf-DNA in gastric cancer (GC). We measured concentrations of cf-DNA, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carcinoembryonic antigen 199 (CA199), carcinoembryonic antigen 50 (CA50), and carcinoembryonic antigen 724 (CA724) in 99 GC patients, 32 gastric benign tumor patients, and 100 normal controls. The Kruskal-Wallis test, receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) test and the Fisher's exact test were used in this study. There was a significant difference in concentrations of cf-DNA between GC patients and gastric benign tumor patients or healthy individuals (P<0.0001). There was no significant difference in cf-DNA in different subgroups of GC patients with respect to gender, age, tumor sites and pathologic stage. There was no correlation between cf-DNA and CEA (P=0.736), CA199 (P=0.254), CA50 (P=0.629) and CA724 (P=0.422). The areas under the ROC curves and sensitivity assessing cf-DNA concentration (0.94, 76.19%) were significantly greater than serum CEA (0.66, 16.67%), CA199 (0.63, 66.67%), CA50 (0.83, 36.67%), and CA724 (0.67, 10.00%) in GC patients. cf-DNA values are significantly higher in GC patients than in the gastric benign tumor patients or healthy controls; this has practical implications in aiding the diagnosis of GC. cf-DNA showed better values than CEA, CA199, CA50, and CA724 by bDNA assay in GC.