Why Is MRD Monitoring Important?

Minimal residual disease (MRD) represents a significant challenge in cancer treatment: Even after successful treatment, tiny amounts of tumor cells can remain in the body, potentially leading to a recurrence if undetected. These cells often evade conventional detection methods but release circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) into the bloodstream, offering an early signal of disease activity. By analyzing ctDNA levels over time, CancerMRD reveals alterations that indicate a possible relapse. This data supports treatment management long before changes in the disease become visible on imaging, gaining valuable time.

This service is based on a tissue-informed, two-step process:

1. creation of a tumor fingerprint: By comparing tumor and normal tissues through whole genome sequencing (WGS), CancerMRD identifies tumor-specific genetic variants unique to each patient to create a tumor fingerprint.

2. non-invasive monitoring: Subsequent WGS-based analyses detect somatic mutations in a liquid biopsy sample and compare them to the fingerprint. This step is non-invasive and easy to repeat. The findings about the detected tumor content are provided in a report that includes a progression graph to facilitate interpretation over time.

Applications of CancerMRD

CancerMRD is a powerful tool to monitor tumor burden with high sensitivity. Its key applications include:

• observe changes in disease course: CancerMRD helps to assess the impact of the current therapy on patients with stable disease and low tumor burden and to make adjustments if needed. Of course, CancerMRD can also detect tumor regression.
• early detection of relapse: Our service identifies recurrence at a molecular level which is especially important for patients in remission. If CancerMRD detects a relapse, it allows for prompt intervention.

Strengthening CeGaT’s Tumor Diagnostics Portfolio

CancerMRD complements CeGaT’s comprehensive tumor diagnostics portfolio as a monitoring service for long-term tracking of the overall tumor burden. We also offer CancerDetect® as a monitoring tool: It is a highly sensitive hotspot mutation-centered panel that can be used for cases where knowing a specific variant’s presence is crucial. For example, this includes cases where the variant serves as a drug target or when tracking the emergence of resistance mutations over time.