A recent review by Stacey A. Cohen, Minetta C. Liu & Alexey Aleshin, in Nature, titled “Practical recommendations for using ctDNA in clinical decision making”, strongly supports the use of repeated testing for circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), for prognosis and for monitoring for recurrence of solid tumours.

For this test, sensitivity and specificity vary across a wide variety of parameters including the test vendor, the tumour type and size, the tissue, histological subtype, grade, as well as lymph-node involvement.

The review is described by Mara G Aspinall and Liz Ruark in their” Sensitive and Specific” newsletter as being thorough and nuanced, with important implications for both patients and physicians.