Liquid Biopsy: Current Status and New Challenges (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Methods and Technologies Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 October 2024) | Viewed by 3810

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
1. Medical and Radiotherapeutic Unit, University Hospital Virgen de las Nieves, Avenida de la Ilustración, 114-18016 Granada, Spain
2. Liquid Biopsy and Cancer Interception Group, GENYO, Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research, Pfizer-University of Granada-Andalusian Regional Government, PTS Granada, Avenida de la Ilustración 114, 18016 Granada, Spain
Interests: liquid biopsy; circulating tumor cells (CTCs); platelets educated tumor (PETs); extracellular vesicles (EVs); circulating tumor nucleic acids (ctNA); cancer interception (CI)
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is the second edition of a previous Special Issue, “Liquid Biopsy: Current Status and New Challenges”  (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/cancers/special_issues/Liquid_Biopsy_Current_Status_New_Challenges).

It is my pleasure to invite you to participate in the development of this Special Issue, which addresses the principal advances and challenges currently facing liquid biopsy.

Liquid biopsy (LB) has been identified as a critical strategic approach in precision medicine (PM). Its use allows us to monitor the patient's evolution in real-time. The most crucial role of LBs is their use as prognostic and predictive markers in different types of tumors, which makes it possible to understand how the disease can evolve and to identify the best treatment according to the presence and characteristics of these LB markers. LBs have been accepted as prognostic and predictive markers in numerous solid tumors, especially in metastatic cancer. Therefore, their use in clinical routine has promoted the need to improve the methodologies for analyzing these markers. Although LBs have as a principal attraction minimal invasiveness and time resolution, most LBs show a common characteristic, “minimal biological amounts” to work, whether we are talking about CTCs, ctDNA, or tumor educated platelets, which makes their use difficult. New methodologies applied to analyze LBs have emerged to address these limitations, including the novel methods of massive sequencing (NGS) or digital PCR. Both allow us to obtain accurate results using minimal samples. This technology accompanies the advances in the clinical implementation of LBs. More importantly, these advances promote the use of the LBs in other fields beyond metastatic cancer. detection of minimal residual disease to predict the risk of relapse in solid tumors is one of the main challenges of using LB. It is also interesting that LBs are now used as diagnostic markers in non-tumoral diseases associated with cancer risk (e.g., colon polyps or lung emphysema) and in cancer interception (the obtention of biological information through a non-invasive biopsy to understand an individual’s real risk of developing cancer).

This Special Issue aims to address the main advances and challenges pertaining to the use of liquid biopsy.

Dr. María Jose Serrano
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • liquid biopsy
  • cancer interception
  • molecular analyses
  • minimal residual disease
  • epigenomic
  • transcriptomic

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Review

22 pages, 910 KiB  
Review
Liquid Biopsy as a New Tool for Diagnosis and Monitoring in Renal Cell Carcinoma
by Giuseppe Stefano Netti, Federica De Luca, Valentina Camporeale, Javeria Khalid, Giorgia Leccese, Dario Troise, Francesca Sanguedolce, Giovanni Stallone and Elena Ranieri
Cancers 2025, 17(9), 1442; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers17091442 - 25 Apr 2025
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Abstract
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) presents a significant diagnostic challenge, particularly in small renal masses. The search for non-invasive screening methods and biomarkers has directed research toward liquid biopsy, which focuses on microRNAs (miRNAs), exosomes, and circulating tumor cells (CTCs). miRNAs are small non-coding [...] Read more.
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) presents a significant diagnostic challenge, particularly in small renal masses. The search for non-invasive screening methods and biomarkers has directed research toward liquid biopsy, which focuses on microRNAs (miRNAs), exosomes, and circulating tumor cells (CTCs). miRNAs are small non-coding RNA molecules that show considerable dysregulation in RCC, and they have potential for both diagnostic and prognostic applications. Research has highlighted their utility on biofluids, such as plasma, serum, and urine, in detecting RCC and characterizing its subtypes. Promising miRNA signatures have been associated with overall survival, suggesting their potential importance in the management of RCC. Exosomes, which carry a variety of molecular components, including miRNAs, are emerging as valuable biomarkers, whereas CTCs, released from primary tumors into the bloodstream, provide critical information on cancer progression. However, translation of these findings into clinical practice requires additional validation and standardization through large-scale studies and robust evidence. Although there are currently no approved diagnostic tests for RCC, the future potential of liquid biopsy in monitoring, treatment decision-making, and outcome prediction in patients with this disease is significant. This review examined and discussed recent developments in liquid biopsy for RCC, assessing both the strengths and limitations of these approaches for managing this disease. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Liquid Biopsy: Current Status and New Challenges (2nd Edition))
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24 pages, 1453 KiB  
Review
New Perspectives on the Role of Liquid Biopsy in Bladder Cancer: Applicability to Precision Medicine
by Fernardo Alberca-del Arco, Daniel Prieto-Cuadra, Rocio Santos-Perez de la Blanca, Felipe Sáez-Barranquero, Elisa Matas-Rico and Bernardo Herrera-Imbroda
Cancers 2024, 16(4), 803; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16040803 - 16 Feb 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3036
Abstract
Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the most common tumors in the world. Cystoscopy and tissue biopsy are the standard methods in screening and early diagnosis of suspicious bladder lesions. However, they are invasive procedures that may cause pain and infectious complications. Considering [...] Read more.
Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the most common tumors in the world. Cystoscopy and tissue biopsy are the standard methods in screening and early diagnosis of suspicious bladder lesions. However, they are invasive procedures that may cause pain and infectious complications. Considering the limitations of both procedures, and the recurrence and resistance to BC treatment, it is necessary to develop a new non-invasive methodology for early diagnosis and multiple evaluations in patients under follow-up for bladder cancer. In recent years, liquid biopsy has proven to be a very useful diagnostic tool for the detection of tumor biomarkers. This non-invasive technique makes it possible to analyze single tumor components released into the peripheral circulation and to monitor tumor progression. Numerous biomarkers are being studied and interesting clinical applications for these in BC are being presented, with promising results in early diagnosis, detection of microscopic disease, and prediction of recurrence and response to treatment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Liquid Biopsy: Current Status and New Challenges (2nd Edition))
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