Circulating tumour DNA as a novel biomarker for colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer and presents an enormous burden of disease world-wide. Screening is possible and desirable for CRC because there is a latent and early stage of detectable disease in which there is accepted treatment with good outcomes. Currently, there is growing interest in the possible development of accurate blood tests utilising circulating tumour DNA. Simultaneously, the development of new PCR techniques has lead to automated high through-put and low cost mutation detection systems. The primary aim of this project was to utilise Droplet Digital PCR to develop a methylation specific biomarker panel that could be used on circulating tumour DNA for the detection of CRC.