Molecular residual disease (MRD) testing, anyone had it?

Yes, I had tongue and lymph node cancer in 2023. I've had Natera testing since then. They have my tumor DNA and search my blood for it every 2 months. Should my cancer return....the Natera test should show it first. That's the idea.

I have been doing the Natera for 2 1/2 years. My doctor set me up to have it drawn every 3 months it’s supposed to see if there’s any cells in my blood from my original diagnosis. They use your cancer to make a profile and then test you against it. My test for 6 different draws were all zero then in January 2025 it came back positive. I had a reoccurrence. I’m going to ask them about the other thing you mentioned because I don’t know if that’s two separate tests with Natera or if that’s just another name, your doctor used. I would be glad to speak to you. You could call me and I can tell you what happened with me over the years with this process. I never use them coming to my house though I was always worried they may not know how to draw well and if you have an issue, you’re at home and I’d rather be in a facility to have my blood drawn lol

I've had it done for 2 years from a squamous cell tumor that went to a lymph node. Libtayo Immunotherapy and Natera test. My Natera was elevated 3 months ago and now is down to 0 so hoping it stays that way.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences with this testing. I am glad to hear it's not something brand new, I am always a little leery of anything new, be it testing or treatments. It sounds useful if it can detect when treatment is starting to fail. I am not a huge fan of getting CT scans every 3-4 months, which has been going on since my diagnoses and they have finally pushed those back to every 6 months now. Sounds like this testing will be a better inbetween way of keeping tabs on resurgence.

@mawmaws I went on the Natera portal and it looks like they have 3 separate tests ordered for this first draw. DPYD Genotyping, Altera and Signatera are the names. I tried googling the DPYD Genotyping and it seems like that one has something to do with predicting potential bad reactions to a certain class of drugs used in chemotherapy. Not sure why my doctor ordered that one unless it's just some new policy.

@coco46, there are many discussions in different cancer support groups about moledcular residual tesing. Here is one example in the Breast Cancer support group:
- Signatera Test. Is it truly helpful and worthwhile? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/signatera-test-is-it-truly-helpful-and-worthwhile/

Using the search function, you can see all. There are more search results using the search term Signatera:
- https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/discussions/ (28 discussions)

I'd be interested to know why your onocologist ordered the testing for you. You're asking the right questions. 🙂

They are good options for monitoring the presence of cancer DNA in your blood, which can assist in monitoring containment of your cancer, and for other non-Standard of care treatment options (not radiation/chemo) a good tool for exploring options depending on which test you take.

@colleenyoung Thank you for the links, I am reading over all of it.

I do plan to ask the next time I have a visit at the cancer center, why they have suddenly ordered these tests.

So far there have been a few potholes along the way, the first of the three tests to finish running was a failed DNA result. The other two have still not completed, one says they need another sample of my tumor to complete it.

Typically your provider should be able to access your previous biopsy and obtain a sample from that

@mawmaws Cancer progresses it never stays the same so I used Natera until I found out it was only really looking at 4 of the 16 genes it claimed. Tissue showed 4 genes and from that point forward the blood draws are only looking for those 4 genes. Looked it up it is mostly for Stage 1 or 2 after surgery to see if got all of the cancer, not for stage 3 or 4. I am asking about Therapy Response Monitoring instead of MRD

@mm25197 signature liquid biopsy will only pick up the cancer in your blood from your original cancer whatever the mutations are from your Original cancer those are the cells it will pick up & count it will not pick up any other cancers but it is a monitoring thing so they can see if your numbers are going up or down because if your cells are multiplying obviously it’s not under good control. That’s how they build your profile as they take part of your tumor when they set this test up. mine went from 0 to 1.51, then two 2.58, and then six the last one in July. That’s the highest my numbers ever been since I’ve been doing these blood draws, and that was after my surgery on my spine.