Cost-effective cfDNA Extraction kits for Liquid Biopsy Studies and Tests

Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) isolated from human plasma has been used as a biomarker for
studying various types of cancer. cfDNA mutation and methylation have been used as
a diagnostic or therapeutic biomarker for early cancer detection, minimal residual
disease (MRD), and therapy selection and monitoring. However, the major challenge
for cfDNA use in clinical settings is low level of cfDNA in blood and low yield of cfDNA
extraction. In addition, the lack of automatic procedures to reduce hands-on time
adds tedious procedures when processing multiple clinical samples. These
drawbacks create issues when multiple mutations are analyzed, especially low-
frequency mutations. Here we compare the performance of two cfDNA extraction
kits: DiaCarta’s QuantiDNA^TM cfDNA Extraction Kit and Qiagen’s QIAamp MinElute
ccfDNA Midi Kit (ref. 1). DiaCarta kit provides a similar performance to Qiagen’s kit
but provides a more economical option for both research and clinical labs.