Signatera and other CtDNA tests

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KMC21
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2018 8:14 am

Signatera and other CtDNA tests

Postby KMC21 » Mon Jun 28, 2021 12:05 pm

Hello:

In addition to being a rectal cancer survivor, I am a health writer who frequently focuses on cancer. I've been asked to write a brief article about the use of Signatera and other circulating tumor DNA tests to monitor CRC patients for potential residual disease. My understanding is that these are still in clinical trials, but some medical oncologists who specialize in GI cancers are using them.

If you would be willing to share any experiences you've had with these tests, and what institution is managing your care, I would welcome your insights! (This topic has come up before on the board but only in passing.)

Thanks!

Kris
ER visit 9/25/18 with dizziness and rectal bleeding
Colonoscopy 10/2/18
Diagnosed with rectal adenocarcinoma, 10/4/2018
Moderately to poorly differentiated, 8.1 cm from verge, T3 on imaging
Low anterior resection/total proctectomy w/ temp ileostomy 11/27/2018
Downstaged to T1, no lymph node involvement, no adjuvant therapy recommended
Reversal 1/29/2019
CT scan 4/2019 clear, CEA 1.0

polluxx
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:41 pm

Re: Signatera and other CtDNA tests

Postby polluxx » Mon Jun 28, 2021 9:29 pm

I don’t really know a lot of details. I wanted to get my ctDNA tested and my oncologist said that insurance wouldn’t cover it, and it would cost several thousand dollars every 3 months to pay out of pocket. I go to John Muir in Northern California. I had made up my mind that she would need to present some justification to our insurance company to help me get it, or I would find an oncologist who would.

The very next time I talked to her, she said she had gotten me into a trial and Signitera would be covering the cost of my testing. So far, I’ve had 2 negative tests and they just called me today to schedule my 3rd one. They mail me a kit. A mobile phlebotomist comes to my house and draws blood and mails the sample to the lab. The first took took a while to get back. After that I get results in about 10 days.
Stage 3c
2/2020 Right colon hemicolectomy (invasive adenocarcinoma with micropillary features)
Moderately differentiated
Tumor size: 4.4 in greatest dimension Metastatic Carcinoma in 12 out of 28 lymph nodes
Extranodal extension identified
Margins negative

3/2020 Began 12 rounds of FolFox
9/2020 Finished FolFox
12/2020 PET Scan-NED
1-2021 ctDNA Test negative
5-2021 ctDNA Test negative
7-2021 ctDNA Test negative
9-2021 PET/CT Scan-NED

User avatar
O Stoma Mia
Posts: 1709
Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 6:29 am
Location: On vacation. Off-line for now.

Re: Signatera and other CtDNA tests

Postby O Stoma Mia » Wed Jun 30, 2021 2:43 pm

KMC21 wrote:Hello:
In addition to being a rectal cancer survivor, I am a health writer who frequently focuses on cancer. I've been asked to write a brief article about the use of Signatera and other circulating tumor DNA tests to monitor CRC patients for potential residual disease. My understanding is that these are still in clinical trials, but some medical oncologists who specialize in GI cancers are using them...

If you would be willing to share any experiences you've had with these tests, and what institution is managing your care, I would welcome your insights! (This topic has come up before on the board but only in passing.)

Thanks!
Kris

I have no direct experience with these types of tests and I'm not really interested in ever having one of them myself, but I do have some opinions... and I also have some questions:

You say that you have been asked to "write a brief article", but ..
  1. Who is asking you to do this?
    • An editor of one of the newspapers or magazines where you have published an article before?
    • Your own oncologist, or a different oncologist who is managing a Signatera clinical trial site?
    • A CRC patient that you know personally?
    • A sales & marketing representative or a PR person from one of the ctDNA testing companies?
    • An investment advisor who specializes in medical stocks and mutual funds?
    • Other ...?
  2. Do you have any idea what is motivating this person to ask you to write this short article?
  3. Do you know what will happen to your article draft once you have submitted it? Will the person who commissioned it publish it somewhere? If so, do you have any idea where it will appear, and for what purpose?
Reference
https://theconversation.com/essays-on-health-reporting-medical-news-is-too-important-to-mess-up-68920
Society of Professional Journalists - Code of Ethics
https://www.spj.org/pdf/spj-code-of-ethics.pdf


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