Circulating Tumor DNA in Breast Cancer: Current and Future Applications

Two-layer cascaded catalytic hairpin assemblies based on locked nucleic acids for one-step and highly sensitive ctDNA detection

“…Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), a small genomic fragment that is released into the circulatory system during the apoptosis or necrosis process of cancer cells, is an accessible diagnostic biomarker for cancer liquid biopsy. 1–5 The expression level of ctDNA is closely correlated with the tumour size and stage and could provide some significant cross-sectional information on heterogeneous tumours and multi-focal disease. 6,7 Compared to tumour tissue biopsies, blood-based ctDNA detection is a low-cost, easily accessible and minimally invasive method for cancer diagnosis, treatment guidance, and metastasis or prognosis assessment.…”