Blood-Based Analysis of Circulating Cell-Free DNA and Tumor Cells for Early Cancer Detection

Abstract

In a Perspective, Klaus Pantel discusses prospects for use of cell-free DNA and circulating tumor cells in cancer detection.

Liquid biopsy - emergence of a new era in personalized cancer care

“…A major bottleneck preventing the routine clinical use of liquid biopsy are the variations of cells and genetic material in the blood of patients [151], with tumor specific mutations ranging from undetectable in some patients to over hundred thousand copies of the mutation per ml of plasma in others with advanced disease [152]. Additionally, the accuracy of these tests is grossly influenced by the quality and quantity of the DNA extracted from the tissues.…”

Biology and clinical significance of circulating tumor cell subpopulations in lung cancer

“…While ctDNA offers the advantage of not requiring a pre-enrichment step, the specific antigens expressed on the surface of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can also be utilized for enrichment of CTCs from the background of blood cells found in the circulation. The ongoing challenge in the ctDNA field is identifying tumor derived ctDNA from total circulating free DNA (cfDNA) which is also released into the circulation by necrotic and apoptotic healthy cells (8).…”

Obstacles, Opportunities and Priorities for Advancing Metastatic Breast Cancer Research

“…Liquid biopsies are emerging as a potential noninvasive biopsy, but their clinical utility has not been fully validated in clinical trials (16)(17)(18)(19)(20). As liquid biopsy technology continues to be refined, it may provide an alternative to serial tissue cores in the community clinics, but issues such as sample collection, storage/handling, assay standardization, and limitations of information technology platforms need to be resolved.…”