| has gloss | eng: COLD-PCR (co-amplification at lower denaturation temperature-PCR) is a modified Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) protocol that enriches variant alleles from a mixture of wildtype and mutation-containing DNA. The ability to preferentially amplify and identify minority alleles and low-level somatic DNA mutations in the presence of excess wildtype alleles is useful for the detection of mutations. Detection of mutations is important in the case of early cancer detection from tissue biopsies and body fluids such as plasma or serum, assessment of residual disease after surgery or chemotherapy, disease staging and molecular profiling for prognosis or tailoring therapy to individual patients, and monitoring of therapy outcome and cancer remission or relapse. Common PCR will amplify both the major (wildtype) and minor (mutant) alleles with the same efficiency, occluding the ability to easily detect the presence of low-level mutations. |
