Cell-Free DNA Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) for Diagnosing Cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a neoplastic disease which accounts for "90% of pancreatic malignancies," and has a 5-year survival rate of only 9%. The dismal nature of the PDAC diagnosis, which has a median survival time of about one year, can be attributed in part to late detection. In fact, the Cancer of Pancreas Screening-5 study demonstrated a 73.3% survival rate in participants whose PDAC was found early through surveillance via MRI and endoscopic ultrasound. This eightfold increase in survival rate suggests the inherent efficacy of PDAC screening, however, with the median cost of a full MRI being about $2,000, there is a significant barrier to entry for PDAC screening. As a result, finding a cost-effective alternative to PDAC screening could improve survival rates and lower costs, both directly and indirectly. Liquid biopsy could prove to be a valuable tool in the early diagnosis of PDAC, as it provides a non-invasive way to detect the presence of a disease state such as PDAC. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), a type of liquid biopsy used to study protein-DNA interaction, is a promising method at the forefront of cancer research, and has been proven to be capable of detecting tumor-specific transcriptional activity. Additionally, the assay has shown promise in diagnosis and prognosis of disease state. Currently, few (if any) modalities of liquid biopsy in pancreatic cancer use ChIP, and other forms of liquid biopsy have proven to lack sensitivity and specificity. Thus, the aim of this research is to utilize the ChIP assay as a diagnostic and prognostic tool in PDAC by detecting and quantifying tumoral gene expression.