# The predictive and prognostic potential of plasma telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) RNA in rectal cancer patients

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-rampazzo-plasma-tert-rna-rectal-cancer-br-j-cancer-2018/  
OnCo record `paper-rampazzo-plasma-tert-rna-rectal-cancer-br-j-cancer-2018` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A rectal cancer study in which tumour-associated RNA still found in plasma months after surgery marked a higher chance of the cancer progressing.

## Summary

In 176 patients, those with detectable plasma TERT RNA at the later time points had a risk of disease progression 2.13 (95% CI 1.10 to 4.11) and 4.55 (95% CI 1.48 to 13.95) times higher than those with undetectable levels.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Journal: British Journal of Cancer
- Year: 2018
- DOI: 10.1038/bjc.2017.492
- Authors: Rampazzo E, Del Bianco P, Bertorelle R, et al.
- Findings: Detectable plasma TERT RNA after surgery: progression hazard 4.55 (95% CI 1.48 to 13.95).
- What it means: Plasma RNA after curative treatment carries prognostic signal, but without a stated detection limit.
- Caveats: Single centre; one transcript; no detection limit.

## Sources

- Rampazzo et al., Br J Cancer 2018: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.2017.492
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29449673/

## Connected records

- cancers: [Colorectal cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/colorectal/)
- fronts: [Diagnostics & Biomarkers](https://onco.cc/fronts/diagnostics/)
- technologies: [Liquid RNA biopsy (cell-free, vesicle and platelet RNA)](https://onco.cc/technologies/liquid-rna-biopsy/), [MRD / molecular residual disease testing](https://onco.cc/technologies/mrd-testing/)
- terms: [Minimal / molecular residual disease (MRD)](https://onco.cc/terms/mrd/)
- bottlenecks: [Naming which clone or phenotype is left after treatment](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-subclone-attribution-residual-disease/)
- ideas: [Read tumour RNA and tumour DNA from the same blood draw to find and type residual cancer](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-stack-ctdna-and-tumour-rna-residual-disease/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/paper-rampazzo-plasma-tert-rna-rectal-cancer-br-j-cancer-2018.json