With recent advancements in nucleic acid-based molecular technologies, applications for precision medicine in clinical research have grown exponentially. In particular, analysis of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) for cancer detection, prognosis, and monitoring has significantly improved patients’ clinical management and outcomes.
The primary challenge with cfDNA-based liquid biopsy techniques is that cfDNA is typically found at very low concentrations in body fluids, with a range of 1 to 50 ng cfDNA from 1 mL plasma. Of the total cfDNA found in plasma, fragments originating specifically from tumors (ctDNA) can represent as low as 0.01 percent. Thus, efficient techniques for cfDNA extraction are essential for ctDNA detection in precision medicine. Two of the most commonly used cfDNA extraction techniques are spin column-based and magnetic bead-based purification.
This technical note from Beckman Coulter Life Sciences describes a study comparing a spin column-based cfDNA purification kit with a magnetic bead-based purification kit, finding the bead-based kit to significantly outperform the column-based kit and highlighting the importance of selecting an efficient cfDNA extraction method for liquid biopsy applications.