UCAD for Diagnosing Benign or Malignant Gallbladder Diseases and Follow-up

Copy number variation(CNV) refers to ongoing chromosome segregation errors throughout consecutive cell divisions. CNV is a hallmark of human cancer, and it is associated with poor prognosis, metastasis, and therapeutic resistance. Analyzing CNV of the DNA extracted from bile samples in gallbladder seems a promising method for diagnosing, monitoring, and predicting the prognosis of patients with gallbladder cancer. CNV can be assessed using experimental techniques such as bulk DNA sequencing, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), or conventional karyotyping. However, these techniques are either time-consuming or non-specific. The investigators here intend to study whether a new method named Ultrasensitive Chromosomal Aneuploidy Detection (UCAD), which is based on low-coverage whole-genome sequencing, can be used to analyze CNV thus helping diagnose gallbladder cancer and assessing follow-up.