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MRD Watch

Sunday, November 15, 2026

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Independent briefing

Molecular residual disease across cancers, one sourced line at a time.

A daily briefing of sourced, fact-only updates on molecular residual disease, ctDNA, and MRD-relevant biomarkers across cancer types. Edited by Alan Tan, a genitourinary hematologist-oncologist. MRD and biomarker items are listed ahead of other news from the same stretch of days.

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Actively accruing studiesHow testing works
Edited by Alan Tan, MD
How a minimal residual disease test worksA tumor sheds DNA fragments into a blood draw and a urine sample. Sequencing finds those tumor fragments among normal DNA. After treatment, the result can read ctDNA detected or not detected.Tumor sheds DNABlood drawUrine sampleTumor DNA stands outTumorNormalAfter treatmentctDNA detectedNot detected

Latest Melanoma / skin items. Open the Melanoma / skin page.

How it works

A clear scan can still miss what is left

Drawn scanNo evidence of diseaseCells a scan does not show
The drawing starts as a clear scan labeled no evidence of disease, then shows small marks for residual cells.

“No evidence of disease” means the scan did not show a tumor. Alan Tan, MD, puts the gap this way, as an illustration rather than a cutoff: “To the human eye, a clear scan can still hide around 200 million cancer cells.” MRD testing, especially ultrasensitive MRD, looks for that leftover signal in blood.

How testing works

Today

Nov 15, 2026 ET

No update is dated today. The latest verified items are below, with MRD and biomarker reports ranked first.

Leading updates

Pinned items, then MRD and biomarker reports, then newer dates.

MelanomaPinnedMRD / ctDNATrials

Adjuvant/Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy in Melanoma Based on Serial Plasma ctDNA Monitoring

NCT07930182 is a recruiting, non-randomized phase 2 Moffitt trial (estimated enrollment 56) of neoadjuvant or adjuvant nivolumab, with ipilimumab added for ctDNA-defined escalation, using serial tumor-informed Haystack MRD plasma testing in resectable or resected cutaneous melanoma; primary endpoints are event-free survival in the neoadjuvant cohort and relapse-free survival in the adjuvant cohort.

ClinicalTrials.gov

Recent

OtherPinnedMRD / ctDNAConference data

Signatera Monitoring During First-Line Immunotherapy Showed ctDNA Clearance is Associated with Long-Term Survival Across Four Metastatic Cancers

A Natera press release dated November 5, 2026, describes a real-world SITC analysis of 424 patients on first-line immunotherapy for stage IV melanoma, kidney cancer, MSI-H colorectal cancer, or NSCLC: people with two consecutive negative Signatera results had 36-month overall survival of 93.2% versus 77.9% in all others (HR 0.24, P=0.0003), and among those complete molecular responders overall survival was 93.5% if immunotherapy continued and 89.4% if it stopped (P=0.42). These figures are from the company press release; the official SITC/JITC abstract was not retrieved.

Natera, Inc. company press release