Detection of somatic mutations in circulating tumor DNA of patients with operable lung cancer

• Applicant: Dr. Asmae Gassa
• Subject Area: Pneumology, Thoracic Surgery
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 421973058

At first diagnosis, only about 20% of patients with bronchial carcinoma are operable. Operable patients relapse in 30% of the cases. Therefore, early screening by minimally invasive methods for risk of metastases and recurrence is an urgent medical need. Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) is an effective method of specifically and sensitively detecting circulating tumor DNA in plasma and revealing possible indications of metastases. Prospective collected biobank material of primary lung cancer is examined for somatic mutations by next-generation sequencing (NGS) and serves as a matrix for specific PCR probes. In the first steps it is necessary to map the NGS associated mutations, identify possible primers, evaluate the primer pairs in the tissue and finally test them on plasma. Plasma of patients will be screened for circulating tumor DNA and ultimately correlated with metastasis and recurrence.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants