Going with the Flow: The Promise of Plasma-Only Circulating Tumor DNA Assays

Abstract Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has emerged as a noninvasive diagnostic and prognostic tool for colorectal cancer. Here, we discuss studies that evaluate the ability of plasma-only ctDNA assays to detect minimal residual disease and the potential benefit of integration of methylation into ctDNA assays. See related articles by Parikh et al., p. 5586 and Taieb et al., p. 5638