Beyond liquid biopsy: Toward non-invasive assays for distanced cancer diagnostics in pandemics

Abstract

Liquid biopsy technologies have seen a significant improvement in the last decade, offering the possibility of reliable analysis and diagnosis from several biological fluids. The use of these technologies can overcome the limits of standard clinical methods, related to invasiveness and poor patient compliance. Along with this there are now mature examples of lab-on-chips (LOC) which are available and could be an emerging and breakthrough technology for the present and near-future clinical demands that provide sample treatment, reagent addition and analysis in a sample-in/answer-out approach. The possibility of combining non-invasive liquid biopsy and LOC technologies could greatly assist in the current need for minimizing exposure and transmission risks. The recent and ongoing pandemic outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, indeed, has heavily influenced all aspects of life worldwide. Ordinary tasks have been forced to switch from “in presence” to “distanced”, limiting the possibilities for a large number of activities in all fields of life outside of the home. Unfortunately, one of the settings in which physical distancing has assumed noteworthy consequences is the screening, diagnosis and follow-up of diseases. In this review, we analyse biological fluids that are easily collected without the intervention of specialized personnel and the possibility that they may be used -or not-for innovative diagnostic assays. We consider their advantages and limitations, mainly due to stability and storage and their integration into Point-of-Care diagnostics, demonstrating that technologies in some cases are mature enough to meet current clinical needs.

Miniaturized Real-Time PCR systems for SARS-CoV-2 detection at the Point-of-Care

“…In the last years, these tools helped gathering more information about the diagnostic tests by reducing in the meantime the device’s size [16] . Moreover, the improvement of POC allows a remarkable reduction in the time of analysis when compared it to laboratory assays [17] , [18] .…”

A Novel Hybrid Platform for Live/Dead Bacteria Accurate Sorting by On-Chip DEP Device

“…Miniaturization of sorting/sensing methods, taking advantage of microfabrication techniques such as optical/electron-beam lithography, micro-milling, or Direct Laser Plotting (DLP), or a combination of these, allows the development of integrated platforms, also useful in liquid biopsy and on-field assays [ 18 , 19 ].…”

Liquid Biopsy in Pre-Metastatic Niche: From Molecular Mechanism to Clinical Application

“…Nowadays, tissue biopsy, as the gold standard of cancer identification, remains the first-line clinical mean (14). However, conventional tissue biopsies are invasive and sometimes only small samples can be obtained (15), making it impossible to characterize tumor heterogeneity or dynamically monitor tumor progression (16,17). Moreover, it is restricted by tissue excision site, adverse accuracy and sensitivity, and high procedural expenses (18)(19)(20).…”