PLOS Science Wednesday: Hi Reddit my name is Hunter Underhill, and I discovered a new way to use circulating tumor DNA to improve cancer diagnostics and disease monitoring – Ask Me Anything!

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Hi Reddit,

My name is Hunter Underhill](http://ift.tt/2bf7Vtc) and I am an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at the University of Utah. My research focuses on the non-invasive detection, diagnosis, and monitoring of malignant solid tumors.

I recently published a study titled "Fragment Length of Circulating Tumor DNA" in PLOS Genetics. Detection of cell-free DNA derived from tumor cells (i.e., circulating tumor DNA) against the background of naturally occurring cell-free DNA from healthy cells has proven challenging. This has been particularly difficult in non-metastatic solid tumors as circulating tumor DNA has been heretofore indistinguishable from normal cell-free DNA except for the occurrence of mutant alleles that commonly occur at a frequency below detection limits. Our study found a distinct size difference in DNA fragment length between circulating tumor DNA and cell-free DNA. We were subsequently able to exploit this difference in fragment length size to enrich samples for circulating tumor DNA. This finding may provide the opportunity to substantially improve the sensitivity of detecting circulating tumor DNA and broaden the clinical utilization of circulating tumor DNA for diagnosing and monitoring cancers.

I will be answering your questions at 1 pm ET -- Ask Me Anything!

">PLOS Science Wednesday: Hi Reddit my name is Hunter Underhill, and I discovered a new way to use circulating tumor DNA to improve cancer diagnostics and disease monitoring – Ask Me Anything!