Clinical Research Directory

Research on Colorectal Cancer Recurrence Monitoring and Individualized Treatment Based on MRD

This study aims to evaluate whether plasma molecular residual disease (MRD), assessed using circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), can help optimize the duration of immunotherapy in patients with metastatic microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR) colorectal cancer. Patients with MSI-H/dMMR metastatic colorectal cancer can achieve durable responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors, but the optimal duration of treatment remains uncertain. Prolonged immunotherapy may increase treatment burden and the risk of immune-related adverse events. ctDNA-based MRD testing may provide a sensitive method for detecting residual tumor burden and identifying patients who may be able to safely stop treatment. In this study, patients receiving immunotherapy will undergo serial plasma MRD testing. After completing 1 year of immunotherapy, patients with two consecutive negative MRD results will be randomly assigned to either continue immunotherapy or stop treatment and enter observation. Patients will then be followed every 3 months for 2 years with MRD testing and routine clinical assessments, including imaging and laboratory examinations. The study will compare clinical outcomes between the two groups and evaluate whether serial plasma MRD monitoring can support a more individualized approach to the duration of immunotherapy in MSI-H/dMMR metastatic colorectal cancer.

Unified Network for Integrated Fluid Collection at Yale

UNIFY is a Yale-wide liquid biopsy master repository that prospectively collects Streck-tube blood, dried blood spots (and optional archival tissue) from Yale Cancer Center patients across all tumor types for current and future research.

MRD in PAAD Adjuvant Therapy

Our preliminary research has explored the detection efficacy of minimal residual disease (MRD) in pancreatic cancer. In patients with pancreatic cancer undergoing dual-agent adjuvant chemotherapy, the median recurrence-free survival (RFS) is approximately 13.9 months. Due to the high postoperative recurrence rate, short survival time, and intense systemic chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer patients, there is an urgent clinical need to more accurately identify which patients will benefit from adjuvant therapy. This study aims to evaluate the application value and guiding significance of peripheral blood MRD in the decision-making process for adjuvant treatment in patients with resected pancreatic cancer.