Abstract
Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of a next-generation sequencing-based liquid biopsy test for cancer monitoring in dogs.
Samples Pre- and post-operative blood samples were collected prospectively from dogs with confirmed cancer diagnoses originally enrolled in the CANcer Detection in Dogs (CANDiD) study. A subset of these dogs also had longitudinal blood samples collected for recurrence monitoring.
Methods All patients had a pre-operative blood sample collected (after diagnosis but prior to surgical intervention) in which a cancer signal was detected, and had at least one post-operative sample collected. Clinical data were collected for all patients and used to assign a clinical disease status for each follow-up visit.
Results Following excisional surgery, in the absence of clinical residual disease at the post-operative visit, patients with Cancer Signal Detected results at that visit were 1.95-times as likely to have clinical recurrence within 6 months compared to patients with Cancer Signal Not Detected results. In the subset of patients with longitudinal liquid biopsy samples that had clinical recurrence documented during the study period, 73% (8/11; 95% CI: 39 – 93%) of patients had Cancer Signal Detected in blood prior to or concomitant with clinical recurrence; in the 6 patients where molecular recurrence was detected prior to clinical recurrence, the median lead time was 168 days (range: 47 – 238).
Clinical Relevance Next-generation sequencing-based liquid biopsy is a non-invasive tool for cancer monitoring in dogs that can be used as an adjunct to current standard-of-care clinical assessment methods.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors of this study are all current or former employees of PetDx and hold vested or unvested equity in PetDx. This does not alter the authors adherence to AJVR policies. The authors declare no additional conflicts of interest.
