WGS Oncodetect showed higher recurrence sensitivity than WES Oncodetect in colorectal cancer

1. In Beta-CORRECT, WGS Oncodetect detected colorectal cancer recurrence within two years with 72.2% sensitivity versus 42.2% for WES Oncodetect after a single post-surgery blood draw.

2. Post-surgical ctDNA detection was associated with a 10.6-fold higher recurrence risk and two-year disease-free survival of 36.2% versus 92.3% when ctDNA was undetectable.

Evidence Rating Level: 2 (Good)

2MM Brief: Abbott reported new data on molecular residual disease testing after surgery for colorectal cancer at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2026. In the Beta-CORRECT clinical validation study, post-surgical samples from 279 patients with stage II, III or resectable stage IV colorectal cancer were analyzed using the whole-genome sequencing (WGS) Oncodetect test and compared with the whole-exome sequencing (WES) Oncodetect test. A single blood draw obtained approximately one month after surgery showed 72.2% sensitivity for recurrence within two years with WGS Oncodetect, compared with 42.2% with WES Oncodetect. Among 157 patients tested with both assays after surgery, WGS detected circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in all 29 patients identified by WES and in 15 additional patients; all additional detections were below 20 parts per million, including 14 below 10 parts per million. Patients with detectable post-surgical ctDNA had a 10.6-fold higher risk of recurrence than ctDNA-negative patients, with two-year disease-free survival of 36.2% versus 92.3%, respectively. In stage II disease, detectable ctDNA was associated with approximately 31-fold higher recurrence risk, while 2.8% of patients with undetectable ctDNA experienced recurrence within two years. The release states that post-surgical ctDNA detection was the strongest predictor of recurrence among the factors studied. Additional follow-up and longitudinal data from subsequent testing time points are expected. These company-reported findings were presented in poster 4426P at ESMO 2026 and have not been peer reviewed. The release does not provide confidence intervals or P values, and the reported results come from a single post-surgery assessment with additional follow-up pending. This study suggests that WGS-based testing may detect more post-surgical ctDNA and provide recurrence-risk information than WES-based testing, but further data are needed to assess its clinical role.

Click here to read the press release from Abbott

Source: a press release from Abbott. These results have not been peer reviewed.

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