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Why does NCCN still not recommend using circulating tumor DNA to guide adjuvant chemotherapy in stage II colon cancer when colon cancer experts are currently embracing the practice?

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Medical Oncology · University of Wisconsin

While I cannot speak to that panel itself, I can support the very rigorous process that all NCCN guidelines undergo, and I surmise that the reason why ctDNA is not yet recommended is because there is no consensus that:

  1. It is better than CEA and good quality cross-sectional imaging (see, for example,...

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Medical Oncology · UPMC Hillman Cancer Center

I’m not sure I agree with the premise that colon cancer experts are broadly “embracing” the use of ctDNA to guide adjuvant therapy. At least in my experience, its use is far from universal, and there are important caveats that need to be discussed with patients before ordering it. Dr. @Dr. First Las...

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Medical Oncology · Mary Lanning Healthcare Morrison Cancer Center/University of Nebraska Medical Center Adjunct Faculty

The NCCN guidelines state that ctDNA is a prognostic marker, but there is currently insufficient evidence to recommend routine use of ctDNA assays outside of a clinical trial for adjuvant therapy decision-making in stage II colon cancer. ctDNA is a robust prognostic marker for recurrence risk; patie...

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Medical Oncology · NYU Long Island School of Medicine

At diagnosis, the landmark sensitivity from GALAXY-Japan for a high-quality tissue-informed test of 1 postoperative test is about 50% which improves to 70% on surveillance. The false negative rate, therefore, is 50% initially at the adjuvant therapy decision time point (takes 6 weeks to generate a t...

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Medical Oncology · Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey

Agree with others that it is essential to have prospective controlled data on the predictive value of the ctDNA test. Please enroll your high-risk stage II and stage III patients in the CIRCULATE-North America trial.

Nonetheless, there are excellent registry data to show that ctDNA testing is progno...

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