cf-EpiTracing maps disease origin and therapy responses from the plasma epigenome
Researchers report cf-EpiTracing, an automated platform that profiles multiple histone modifications in cell-free chromatin from as little as 50 μL of plasma to infer tissues of origin with high accuracy; by integrating an 18-ICS ChromHMM framework across reference epigenomes, it identifies primary diseased tissues, detects organ involvement, enables noninvasive cancer subtyping (DLBCL, FL, MCL), early colorectal lesions, prognosis and therapy-response prediction, and tracks disease transformations and translocations. Validated in CRC, CHD and B-cell lymphoma cohorts, cf-EpiTracing outperforms current clinical indices for prognosis and supports longitudinal monitoring, highlighting a versatile, noninvasive epigenome-centric approach that could be integrated with other cfDNA modalities for enhanced precision.