Multi-modal cell-free DNA genomic and fragmentomic patterns enhance cancer survival and recurrence analysis

Abstract

The structure of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is altered in the blood of patients with cancer. From whole-genome sequencing, we retrieve the cfDNA fragment-end composition using a new software (FrEIA [fragment end integrated analysis]), as well as the cfDNA size and tumor fraction in three independent cohorts (n= 925 cancer from >10 types and 321 control samples). At 95% specificity, we detect 72% cancer samples using at least one cfDNA measure, including 64% early-stage cancer (n= 220). cfDNA detection correlates with a shorter overall (p= 0.0086) and recurrence-free (p= 0.017) survival in patients with resectable esophageal adenocarcinoma. Integrating cfDNA measures with machine learning in an independent test set (n= 396 cancer, 90 controls) achieve a detection accuracy of 82% and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.96. In conclusion, harnessing the biological features of cfDNA can improve, at no extra cost, the diagnostic performance of liquid biopsies.