Buder Anna, Tomuta Christian, Filipits Martin
Institute of Cancer Research, Department of Medicine I, Comprehensive Cancer Center Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Curr Opin Oncol. 2016 Mar;28(2):130-4. doi: 10.1097/CCO.0000000000000267.
This article discusses the current status and applications of liquid biopsy in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The discovery of genetic alterations which are responsible for the development and progression of NSCLC led to the identification of a new generation of molecular biomarkers. However, in NSCLC, it is often difficult in clinical practice to obtain sufficient tumor material for genetic analyses. Therefore, analyses of tumor-specific genetic alterations in the serum or plasma of the patients are particularly valuable because they can provide temporal measurements of the total tumor burden as well as identify specific mutations that arise during therapy. The procedure of taking blood samples to detect tumor-specific genetic alterations is termed 'liquid biopsy'. In particular, it can be used for a variety of clinical and research applications, including response assessment in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated NSCLC patients receiving EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy. It has been demonstrated that liquid biopsy is a fast and easy way to obtain information on tumor burden and assess the changes of the molecular nature of a tumor during the course of therapy. However, because of the limited amount of tumor material in the blood and yet insufficient knowledge of specific cancer biomarkers, extensive research has to be continued in this field to implement this method into clinical routine.
In this review, we highlight the opportunities and clinical as well as research applications of liquid biopsy in NSCLC patients.
本文探讨液体活检在非小细胞肺癌（NSCLC）中的现状及应用。
导致NSCLC发生和发展的基因改变的发现，促成了新一代分子生物标志物的识别。然而，在NSCLC中，临床实践中往往难以获取足够的肿瘤组织用于基因分析。因此，分析患者血清或血浆中的肿瘤特异性基因改变尤为有价值，因为它们可以提供肿瘤总负荷的动态测量，并识别治疗期间出现的特定突变。采集血样以检测肿瘤特异性基因改变的过程被称为“液体活检”。特别是，它可用于多种临床和研究应用，包括对接受表皮生长因子受体（EGFR）酪氨酸激酶抑制剂治疗的EGFR突变NSCLC患者进行疗效评估。已经证明，液体活检是一种快速且简便的方法，可获取有关肿瘤负荷的信息，并评估治疗过程中肿瘤分子性质的变化。然而，由于血液中肿瘤物质的量有限，且对特定癌症生物标志物的了解不足，该领域仍需继续进行广泛研究，以便将此方法应用于临床常规。
在本综述中，我们强调了液体活检在NSCLC患者中的机会以及临床和研究应用。
