Circulating Extrachromosomal Circular DNA in Ovarian Cancer Reflects Chemotherapeutic Response and Recurrence

Strategic Insights -

Researchers at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University in China have discovered that circulating extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) in the plasma can be used as a biomarker to predict chemotherapy sensitivity in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients. The study, published in Experimental Cell Research, found that EOC patients exhibited significantly higher levels of eccDNA, with higher coverage in coding exon regions. Notably, circulating eccDNA was generally increased in the complete remission group, while decreased in the partial remission and relapse groups during treatment.

Key Takeaways:

  • Investigators isolated eccDNA from plasma samples of 30 EOC patients before treatment (T0 time point) and 4 healthy individuals, finding that EOC patients exhibited significantly higher levels of eccDNA.
  • The study divided patients into three groups: complete remission (CR), partial remission (PR), and relapse (RC) and found that circulating eccDNA was generally increased in the CR group, while decreased in the PR and RC groups during treatment.
  • The normalized eccDNA count per million mapped reads (EPM) among all groups was compared, and the findings showed that the fold change of EPMs between the T1 and T0 distinguished PR and RC patients from CR patients, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.71.
  • The study identified two genes, SCARB1 and PDE10A, whose EPMs were able to predict prognosis in EOC patients, with AUCs of 0.86 and 0.83, respectively.
  • The research concluded that circulating eccDNA can be used as a novel approach for predicting chemotherapy sensitivity in EOC patients.

Statistics:

  • 30 EOC patients were used in the study.
  • 4 healthy individuals were used as controls.
  • The study compared the normalized eccDNA count per million mapped reads (EPM) among 16 EOC patients divided into three groups: CR, PR, and RC.
  • The area under the curve (AUC) for predicting prognosis using EPMs of SCARB1 and PDE10A was 0.86 and 0.83, respectively.
  • The fold change of EPMs between the T1 and T0 distinguished PR and RC patients from CR patients with an AUC of 0.71.

Sources:

  • Wang et al. (2025). Circulating extrachromosomal circular DNA in epithelial ovarian cancer reflects chemotherapeutic response and recurrence. Experimental Cell Research, 451(1), 114695.