Liquid Biopsy beyond Circulating Tumor Cells and Cell-Free DNA

Abstract

Liquid biopsy represents the analysis of tumor-derived material in the blood and other body fluids of cancer patients. This portrays a minimally invasive detection tool for molecular biomarkers. Liquid biopsy has emerged as a complementary or alternative method to surgical biopsy. This non-invasive detection tool overcomes the recurrent problems in the clinical assessment of tumors that stem from the lack of accessibility to the tumor tissue and its clonal heterogeneity. Moreover, body fluid-derived components have shown to reflect the genetic profile of both primary and metastatic lesions and provide a real-time monitoring of tumor dynamics, representing a great promise for personalized medicine. This review will highlight the latest breakthroughs and the current applications of several tumor-derived biomarkers that can be found in body fluids. The authors will focus on tumor-derived exosomes, tumor-educated platelets, and circulating tumor miRNAs and mRNAs, and how these can be used for tumor detection.