Circulating cell-free nucleic acids as prognostic and therapy predictive tools for metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer

Abstract

Metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer remains a disease hard to cure, and for this reason predictive tools to monitor disease progression and therapy response are an urgent need. In this respect, liquid biopsy on circulating cell-free nucleic acids represents an interesting strategy based on robust data. The low invasiveness and the possibility to target circulating cell-free tumor deoxyribonucleic acid underline the high specificity, sensitivity and clinical usability of the technique. Moreover, it has been observed that the cell-free tumor deoxyribonucleic acid of metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer patients can be representative of the tumor heterogeneity. Cell-free tumor deoxyribonucleic acids express the same behaviors as mutations: Variation in gene copy number or the methylation rate of the tumor tissue. Recently, circulating cell-free ribonucleic acid molecules have emerged as interesting markers to stratify the disease. Due to high-throughput technologies, liquid biopsy on circulating cell-free nucleic acids will soon be utilized in the clinical management of metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer patients.

Molecular Characterization of Prostate Cancers in the Precision Medicine Era

“…Several studies have also investigated the role of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in metastatic PCa patients. The analysis of ctDNA represents an additional low invasive and easily repeatable approach useful to monitor tumor progression and able to provide information on tumor molecular status and prognosis, complementing clinical data [ 150 , 151 ]. Moreover, quantitative studies on the changes in tumor fraction in serial samples treated with PARP inhibitors and taxanes have been associated with patients’ outcome and treatment responses [ 152 ].…”

MicroRNAs in extracellular vesicles: Sorting mechanisms, diagnostic value, isolation, and detection technology

“…In a variety of tumor diseases, such as bladder cancer ( Piao et al, 2021 ), ovarian cancer ( Taylor and Gercel-Taylor, 2008 ), non-small-cell lung cancer ( Wu and Shen, 2020 ), breast cancer ( Volovat et al, 2020 ), prostate cancer ( Sobhani et al, 2020 ), pancreatic cancer ( Savareh et al, 2020 ), and gastric cancer ( Cheng et al, 2020 ), the levels of miRNA in the EVs obtained from plasma of tumor patients were significantly higher than those of healthy controls. Certain disease-related miRNAs are selectively incorporated into the EVs, with significant differences in the miRNAs content compared to cells ( Baglio et al, 2015 ).…”

The Role of Genomics and Proteomics in Lung Cancer Early Detection and Treatment

“…Many genomic and proteomic biomarkers, such as DNA methylation, microRNA (miRNA), antitumor antibodies, and plasma proteins, have been investigated for early cancer detection, including lung cancer. Liquid biopsy comprises various sources, including sputum, blood, exhaled breath, sputum, bronchial aspirate, and bronchoalveolar lavages for the early detection of lung cancer [ 19 , 20 , 21 ] ( Figure 1 ).…”