A remnant never forgotten: the utility of circulating tumor DNA in treatment guidance of urachal cancer

Christopher Ryan Grant; David J Benjamin; Scott Cramer; Arash Rezazadeh Kalebasty

doi:10.1177/17588359241230743

A remnant never forgotten: the utility of circulating tumor DNA in treatment guidance of urachal cancer

Ther Adv Med Oncol. 2024 Feb 28:16:17588359241230743. doi: 10.1177/17588359241230743. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Christopher Ryan Grant¹, David J Benjamin², Scott Cramer³, Arash Rezazadeh Kalebasty⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, University of California Irvine Medical Center, UC Irvine Health, 200 S Manchester Avenue, Room 423, Orange, CA 92868, USA.
² Hoag Family Cancer Institute, Newport Beach, CA, USA.
³ Department of Radiology, University of California Irvine Medical Center, Orange, CA, USA.
⁴ Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of California Irvine Medical Center, Orange, CA, USA.

Abstract

Urachal cancer is a rare malignancy of the urachus that is treated with surgical resection if localized and systemic chemotherapy for metastatic disease. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a single-stranded or double-stranded DNA released by tumor cells into the blood and harbored the mutations of the original tumor, shedding new light on molecular diagnosis and monitoring of cancer. We report a case of resected localized urachal cancer with clear surgical margins and negative lymph node dissection but elevated ctDNA that progressed to metastatic disease. We also highlight the possibility of using ctDNA levels to assist in adjuvant therapy.

Keywords: circulating tumor DNA; urachal cancer; urachal remnant; urachus.

Publication types

Case Reports