The Science and Technology of Liquid Biopsies Improving Rapidly

I have blogged about liquid biopsies over the course of seven years (see, for example:Does the New Term"Liquid Biopsy" Make Any Sense?;Rapid Adoption of the Term"Liquid Biopsy" on the Web;"Liquid Biopsy" Used to Refer to Detection of Any Serum Cancer DNA). The procedure has the potential to revolutionize both the diagnosis and monitoring of malignant lessons. A recent article discussed the technology in detail (see:Going With the Flow: The Promise and Challenge of Liquid Biopsies). I offer below only a short excerpt from the article. Be sure to read the whole thing if you are interested.A more promising alternative [than cancer biomarkers] that is gaining traction [in cancer diagnosis] is to evaluate tumor products such as circulating cell-free tumor DNA (ctDNA) and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that are shed into the blood —or other bodily fluids, such as urine or saliva....One reason it took the liquid biopsy so long to catch on is that CTCs and ctDNA are found in low concentrations in the bloodstream. However, the technology has now developed to the point of sufficient sensitivity and specificity to accurately detect these tumor products.A recent large-scale study reported that ctDNA analysis identified cancer mutations in 85% of all advanced tumors, and the genomic profiles obtained correlated highly with those from solid tumor biopsies.A big advantage of the liquid biopsy is that it can be carried out in a simple, noninvasive way th...
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