Abstract 3110: In depth comparison of cell free DNA blood collection tubes

Liquid biopsy continues to gain traction as a minimally invasive method to monitor biomarkers associated with malignancy and metastasis such as cell-free DNA (cfDNA). However, cell-free DNAs are present in low quantities and are prone to rapid degradation and contamination, which presents challenges for the detection of rare cfDNA targets. Higher molecular weight genomic DNA from poorly stabilized leukocytes can also serve to contaminate plasma, compromising liquid biopsy assay results by increasing the total amount of extracted DNA while diluting rare cfDNA targets; leading to sample rejection or false negative results. Efficient and robust preservation of cfDNA and prevention of leukocyte lysis is thus essential for the accuracy of downstream tests, and several blood collection tubes (BCTs) designed to stabilize cfDNA are now commercially available. The work presented here evaluates LBgard® Blood Tubes (Biomatrica), the Streck Cell-Free DNA BCTs® (Streck), and PAXgene Blood ccfDNA Tubes (PreAnalytix) for analysis of cfDNA. Healthy donor blood was collected into collection tubes, and the samples were either stored for several days at a range of temperatures or subjected to various shipping conditions. Several metrics were evaluated, including hemolysis, plasma recovery, cfDNA preservation, contamination with genomic DNA (gDNA), and quantitation of cfDNA targets. Differences were observed between the various tubes evaluated, especially when tested under real-world stress shipping conditions. Data reports performance metrics and evaluations across the multiple formulations of BCTs and highlights the criticality of collection tube selection in biomarker investigation and study. Citation Format: Joel Desharnais, Jacob M. Vasquez, Katya J. Reshatoff, Quyen Bui, Han-Mei Chen, Billyana Tsvetanova, Jerry Lu, Amber N. Murray, Gina L. Costa. In depth comparison of cell free DNA blood collection tubes [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 3110.