An overview of current development and barriers on liquid biopsy in patients with early-stage non-small-cell Lung cancer

Abstract

Abstract Purpose Liquid biopsy is a promising technological method in patient management of early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The detection platforms exhibit high efficiency and related clinical applications also emerge with high-quality performance. An overview of the current status is in need for an integrated perception on this field. Methods NSCLC takes up the largest proportion of lung cancer and there is a tendency for more early-stage patients in real practice. Hence, early-stage NSCLC participants occupy an important position in clinical work. Liquid biopsy, as a promising non-invasive detection method, had great potential in various aspects of the whole diagnosis-treatment procedure. We went through the landmark articles according to liquid biopsy in the field of early-stage NSCLC management and concluded the status quo of it. Results In this review, we summarized the improvement of the detection technologies regarding the most widely studied biomarkers and elucidated the current clinical applications of liquid biopsy in early detection, prognostic performance assessment, and predictive value respectively, in early-stage NSCLC patients. Conclusion Liquid biopsy has achieved favorable outcomes in different aspects of early-stage NSCLC. Although there are still barriers yet to conquer, liquid biopsy is a hopeful detection means to be put into clinical use.