Liquid biopsy: a step closer to transform diagnosis, prognosis and future of cancer treatments

Abstract

Over the past decade, invasive techniques for diagnosing and monitoring cancers are slowly being replaced by non-invasive methods such as liquid biopsy. Liquid biopsies have drastically revolutionized the field of clinical oncology, offering ease in tumor sampling, continuous monitoring by repeated sampling, devising personalized therapeutic regimens, and screening for therapeutic resistance. Liquid biopsies consist of isolating tumor-derived entities like circulating tumor cells, circulating tumor DNA, tumor extracellular vesicles, etc., present in the body fluids of patients with cancer, followed by an analysis of genomic and proteomic data contained within them. Methods for isolation and analysis of liquid biopsies have rapidly evolved over the past few years as described in the review, thus providing greater details about tumor characteristics such as tumor progression, tumor staging, heterogeneity, gene mutations, and clonal evolution, etc. Liquid biopsies from cancer patients have opened up newer avenues in detection and continuous monitoring, treatment based on precision medicine, and screening of markers for therapeutic resistance. Though the technology of liquid biopsies is still evolving, its non-invasive nature promises to open new eras in clinical oncology. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the current methodologies involved in liquid biopsies and their application in isolating tumor markers for detection, prognosis, and monitoring cancer treatment outcomes.

Skin Cancer Research Goes Digital: Looking for Biomarkers within the Droplets

“…However, within the last years, most applications of ddPCR in cancers have focused on LBs, including ctDNA and ctRNA, EVs, and CTCs [ 77 ]. In contrast to highly invasive and spatially limited tissue biopsies, LBs allow for repeat sampling and longitudinal monitoring of disease progression over time, providing outstanding opportunities for the detection of MRD or therapy resistance, as well as recurrence or disease progression [ 222 ]. Nonetheless, research presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meetings highlighted how advances in dermato-oncology assisted by ddPCR and LBs may inform future research and clinical decisions in cutaneous tumors [ 223 , 224 , 225 ].…”

Accelerating the Development and Validation of Liquid Biopsy for Early Cancer Screening and Treatment Tailoring

“…These biomarkers offer complementary information at different levels. Numerous LB-based studies and clinical trials for a wide variety of cancer types (e.g., breast cancer, colorectal cancer (CRC), prostate cancer, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and malignant melanoma) have been initiated to demonstrate their clinical relevance in cancer patients [ 14 , 22 , 23 ]. The clinical utility of LB has been demonstrated for the detection of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in NSCLC patients or for the detection of KRAS proto-oncogene, GTPase (KRAS) mutations in patients suffering from metastatic CRC [ 24 ].…”

Transfer RNA-derived small RNA: an emerging small non-coding RNA with key roles in cancer

“…As a non-invasive and convenient sampling technique for tumor diagnosis, liquid biopsy has gradually replaced invasive methods for cancer diagnosis and detection in the last decade [ 93 ]. Meanwhile, an increasing number of studies have found that tsRNAs are present not only in the tissues, but also widely in the body fluids of cancer patients, including plasma, serum, and exosomes.…”