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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Dec 15, 2016; 8(12): 810-818
Published online Dec 15, 2016. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v8.i12.810
Role of circulating free DNA in colorectal cancer
Alexios Matikas, Alexandra Voutsina, Maria Trypaki, Vassilis Georgoulias
Alexios Matikas, Alexandra Voutsina, Maria Trypaki, Vassilis Georgoulias, Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Voutes, Heraklion, 71110 Crete, Greece
Author contributions: Matikas A conceptualized and designed the review together with Georgoulias V; Matikas A, Voutsina A and Trypaki M drafted the initial manuscript; all authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript as submitted.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Alexios Matikas, MD, Msc, Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Voutes, PO Box 1352, Heraklion, 71110 Crete, Greece. georgsec@med.uoc.gr
Telephone: +30-2810-392783 Fax: +30-2810-543601
Received: June 17, 2016
Peer-review started: June 18, 2016
First decision: July 27, 2016
Revised: September 6, 2016
Accepted: October 5, 2016
Article in press: October 9, 2016
Published online: December 15, 2016
Processing time: 172 Days and 14.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Published studies clearly indicate that cell-free DNA levels and the detection of specific molecular events in the plasma of colorectal cancer patients is a relevant prognostic and predictive biomarker, with clinically meaningful value at various disease settings such as asymptomatic screening, follow-up after curative surgery and metastatic disease. Further randomized studies are needed before these techniques are implemented at the daily practice.