Pathological Insights into Liquid Biopsy: Role of Circulating Tumor DNA in Oral Cancer Prognosis and Therapy

Background: Oral cancer exists as a major international health challenge. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) represents a non-invasive biomarker through liquid biopsy because it enables cancer detection disease monitoring and therapy response assessment. This study aimed at Pathological Insights into Liquid Biopsy by evaluating the role of circulating tumor DNA in oral cancer Prognosis and Therapy. Methods: The research implemented an ethical-approved (CIIT-RBM/006/ISB) cross-sectional method from June to December 2024 to obtain 80 EDTA blood plasma samples from oral cancer patients mainly at Shaikh Zayed Hospital Lahore and PIMS Hospital Islamabad using consecutive sampling technique. firstly cell-free DNA was extracted followed by targeted sequencing to detect mutations that are specific to tumors. Using SPPS version 26. this study established a < 0.001 p-value as its statistical threshold using one-way ANOVA. Results: There were 52 males and 28 females in this study with average age of 56.4 ± 12.3 years. The majority of patients were male (65%), with a higher prevalence of late-stage tumors (Stage III-IV).. Significantly higher ctDNA levels (35.7 ± 5.4) were associated with tumor stage, lymph node involvement with poor survival outcome. The mean ctDNA yield was significantly higher in tumor tissues than in adjacent normal tissues (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The study demonstrated clinically significant evidence that ctDNA serves as a dependable biomarker for primary diagnosis which can be easily accessed through non-invasive methods in oral cancer cases. Ongoing large-scale studies should be followed to validate the discovered findings while developing consistent clinical procedures.