Pan Ying, Ji John S, Jin Jason Gang, Kuo Winston Patrick, Kang Hongjun
IEEE Pulse. 2017 Jan-Feb;8(1):23-27. doi: 10.1109/MPUL.2016.2630838.
The management of cancer relies on a combination of imaging and tissue biopsy for diagnosis, monitoring, and molecular classification-based patient stratification to ensure appropriate treatment. Conventional tissue biopsy harvests tumor samples with invasive procedures, which are often difficult for patients with advanced disease. Given the well-recognized intratumor genetic heterogeneity [1], the biopsy of small tumor fragments does not necessarily represent all the genetic aberrations in the tumor, but sampling the entire tumor in each patient is not realistic. Moreover, tumors evolve all the time from local to advanced disease and by adapting to selective pressure from treatment.
癌症的管理依赖于影像学和组织活检相结合的方法来进行诊断、监测以及基于分子分类的患者分层，以确保进行适当的治疗。传统的组织活检通过侵入性程序获取肿瘤样本，这对于晚期疾病患者来说往往很困难。鉴于肿瘤内基因异质性已得到广泛认可[1]，小肿瘤碎片的活检不一定能代表肿瘤中的所有基因畸变，但对每个患者的整个肿瘤进行采样并不现实。此外，肿瘤一直在从局部发展到晚期疾病，并通过适应治疗的选择性压力而不断演变。
