Extraction of cell free DNA (cfDNA) from a patient’s blood sample is
a crucial preanalytical step of the liquid biopsy process. Whether
testing is being performed for early disease diagnosis, therapy
selection, or disease and treatment surveillance, the input material
must be of sufficient quantity as well as high quality to return
informative data. In addition, total capture of the full cfDNA content
from a sample is necessary to evaluate variant content present in a
cfDNA sample, tumor growth or recurrence. Fragmentomics is an
emerging field that can indicate tumor origin among other
information, and again, complete and accurate cfDNA content
recovery is critical. The cfDNA content in patient plasma is highly
variable, and sample mass is limited compared to that of resected
tumors.