There is unequivocal acceptance of the variety of enormous potential liquid nucleic acid-based diagnostics seems to offer. However, the existing controversies and the increased awareness of RNA-based techniques in society during the current global COVID-19 pandemic have made the readiness of liquid nucleic acid-based diagnostics for routine use a matter of concern. In this regard—and in the context of oncology—our review presented and discussed the status quo of RNA-based liquid diagnostics. We summarized the technical background of the available assays and benchmarked their applicability against each other. Herein, we compared the technology readiness level in the clinical context, economic aspects, implementation as part of routine point-of-care testing as well as performance power. Since the preventive care market is the most promising application sector, we also investigated whether the developments predominantly occur in the context of early disease detection or surveillance of therapy success. In addition, we provided a careful view on the current biotechnology investment activities in this sector to indicate the most attractive strategies for future economic success. Taken together, our review shall serve as a current reference, at the interplay of technology, clinical use and economic potential, to guide the interested readers in this rapid developing sector of precision medicine.

Background: Lack of reproducibility in preclinical research poses ethical and economic challenges for biomedical science. Various institutional activities by society stakeholders of leading industrialised nations are currently underway with the aim of improving the situation. Such initiatives are usually concerned with high-level organisational issues and typically do not focus on improving experimental approaches per se. Addressing these is necessary in order to increase consistency and success rates of lab-to-lab repetitions. Methods: In this project, we statistically evaluated repetitive data of a very basic and widely applied lab procedure, namely quantifying the number of viable cells. The purpose of this was to assess the impact of different parameters and instrumentations which may constitute sources of variance in this procedure. Conclusion: By comparing the variability of data acquired under two different procedures, featuring improved stringency of protocol adherence, our project attempts to identify the sources and propose guidelines on how to reduce such fluctuations. We believe our work can contribute to tackling the repeatability crisis in biomedical research.

Background: Lack of reproducibility in preclinical research is a problem posing ethical and economic challenges for biomedical science. Various institutional activities from society stakeholders of leading industry nations are currently underway to improve the situation. Such initiatives usually attempt to tackle high-level organisational issues and do not typically focus on improving experimental approaches per se. Addressing these is necessary in order to increase consistency and success rates of lab-to-lab repetitions. Methods: In this project, we statistically evaluated repetitive data of a very basic and widely applied lab procedure, namely quantifying the number of viable cells. The purpose of this was to appreciate the impact of different parameters and instrumentations that may constitute sources of variance in this procedure. Conclusion: By comparing the variations of data acquired under two different procedures, featuring improved stringency of protocol adherence, our project attempts to propose guidelines on how to reduce such variations. We believe our work can contribute to tackling the repeatability crisis in biomedical research.