Plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) shows promise as a predictive biomarker of treatment resistance in cancer patients. However, the mechanisms governing its production, fragmentation, elimination, and their relationships with tumor burden and disease progression, remain poorly understood. We developed a mechanistic model jointly describing the dynamics of short (75-<580 bp) and long (≥580-1650 bp)...
Background: Real-time treatment response assessment in HPV-associated anal squamous cell carcinoma (ASCC) remains challenging. Traditional tumor volume measurements require serial imaging that is costly, time-intensive, and delays clinical decisions. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) offers a more accessible, real-time alternative biomarker, yet its predictive value for guiding treatment...
Tumor–immune interactions are central to cancer progression and treatment response, driving cell death through immune-mediated killing and resource-limited competition. In early-stage disease or following effective treatment, cancer populations are often small and difficult to observe directly. Disease monitoring therefore relies on biomarkers such as circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as noisy...
Liquid biopsy studies consistently report both elevated circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) concentrations and shortened fragment lengths in cancer. These features are often attributed to tumor-specific processes, despite tumor-derived cfDNA frequently constituting less than 1% of the total. Here, we consider an alternative explanation: Saturation of cfDNA clearance, which prolongs cfDNA...
Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and cell-free DNA (cfDNA) are increasingly used to monitor tumor burden, treatment response, and therapeutic resistance. A central challenge, however, is that liquid biopsy signals reflect multiple biological processes operating across scales, including stochastic biomarker shedding, clearance dynamics, and coupling to tumor–immune interactions. As a result,...
