Cancer Diagnosis Using a Liquid Biopsy: Challenges and Expectations

• Published in: Diagnostics (Basel) Vol. 8; no. 2; p. 31
• Main Authors: Castro-Giner, Francesc, Gkountela, Sofia, Donato, Cinzia, Alborelli, Ilaria, Quagliata, Luca, Ng, Charlotte K Y, Piscuoglio, Salvatore, Aceto, Nicola
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 09.05.2018; MDPI
• Subjects: Apoptosis; cancer diagnosis; cancer treatment; circulating tumor cells; deep-sequencing; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Epigenetics; Gangrene; Laboratories; liquid biopsy; Lung cancer; Metastasis; Mutation; Patients; Plasma; Questioning; Review; single cell analysis; Tumors; Urine; Switzerland; cancer treatment; cancer diagnosis; deep-sequencing; circulating tumor cells; single cell analysis; liquid biopsy
• ISSN: 2075-4418; 2075-4418
• DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics8020031

The field of cancer diagnostics has recently been impacted by new and exciting developments in the area of liquid biopsy. A liquid biopsy is a minimally invasive alternative to surgical biopsies of solid tissues, typically achieved through the withdrawal of a blood sample or other body fluids, allowing the interrogation of tumor-derived material including circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) fragments that are present at a given time point. In this short review, we discuss a few studies that summarize the state-of-the-art in the liquid biopsy field from a diagnostic perspective, and speculate on current challenges and expectations of implementing liquid biopsy testing for cancer diagnosis and monitoring in the clinical setting.