Fragmentation patterns of circulating cell-free DNA demonstrate biomarker potential for human cancers

The often-dismal clinical outcomes for most cancers are due to the fact that cancer patients diagnosed at advanced stages would miss the opportunities for curative treatments or effective treatments no longer available for these patients (1). Therefore, lacking clinically proven and convenient tools for early detection of cancers has been one major contributor to the poor clinical outcomes for many human cancers. In particular, considering their non-invasiveness and clinical relevance, the past decade has witnessed significant efforts of exploring patient-derived biofluids (i.e., liquid biopsy) in cancer biomarker discovery.