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“Incredibly insightful and effectively addressed several key knowledge gaps I had on the topic” – feedback from a participant
On 30 April 2026, the EACR hosted a webinar in collaboration with Bio-Rad, one of our valued EACR Industry Partners. In this webinar we welcomed Tenna Vesterman Henriksen from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, who demonstrated how tumor-informed ctDNA analysis can refine recurrence risk assessment beyond conventional clinicopathological factors.
Thanks to Dr. Vesterman Henriksen and Bio-Rad we are able to provide free on-demand access to the webinar, which can be found above.
Talk abstract
Current management of colorectal cancer (CRC) relies on histopathological risk factors, which are indirect measures of recurrence risk that lead to imprecise treatment strategies. As a result, up to 60% of patients may receive adjuvant chemotherapy despite being cured by surgery alone. At the same time, recurrences are often detected too late for curative intervention, while intensive radiological surveillance is impractical and costly – particularly given that only around 20% of patients will relapse, meaning most surveillance resources are spent on patients who remain disease-free. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) offers a minimally invasive approach to directly measure minimal residual disease, enabling more precise risk stratification and dynamic recurrence monitoring.
Here, Dr. Vesterman Henriksen will demonstrate how tumor-informed ctDNA analysis can refine recurrence risk assessment beyond conventional clinicopathological factors. Using whole-exome sequencing of the primary tumor, her team identify clonal mutations and design patient-specific droplet digital PCR assays targeting a single mutation per patient. To ensure robustness in the minimal residual disease setting, they systematically optimize assay performance by characterizing background noise, avoiding noise-prone variants, and prioritizing clonal mutations.
Postoperative ctDNA detection identifies patients at very high recurrence risk who may benefit from additional therapy, while ctDNA-negative patients have substantially lower risk and may be candidates for treatment de-escalation. Intensive serial ctDNA monitoring enables earlier recurrence detection than routine imaging and allows assessment of tumor growth dynamics. Ongoing randomized trials are now evaluating clinical utility and assessing paths for implementation of ctDNA-guided strategies in CRC management.
Speaker
Tenna Vesterman Henriksen, Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark
Tenna Vesterman Henriksen holds a Master’s degree in Molecular Medicine and a PhD from the Department of Molecular Medicine at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. Her research focuses on translational oncology, with a particular emphasis on circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in colorectal cancer. She investigates ctDNA detection as a proxy for molecular residual disease and ctDNA dynamics as a measure of changes in disease burden. Her work aims to improve patient stratification and optimize treatment timing in precision oncology.
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