Lu Tian, Li Jinming
National Center for Clinical Laboratories, Beijing Hospital, National Center of GerontologyBeijing, People's Republic of China.
Graduate School, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijing, People's Republic of China.
Am J Cancer Res. 2017 Nov 1;7(11):2318-2332. eCollection 2017.
Liquid biopsy is gaining significant attention as a tool for unveiling the molecular landscape of tumor and holds great promise for individualized medicine for cancer. Cell-free DNA serves as an extremely important component of liquid biopsy for cancer, and cell-free DNA in urine is even promising due to the remarkable advantage of urine as an ultra-noninvasive sample source over tissue and blood. Compared with the widely studied cell-free DNA in blood, less is known about the role of urinary cell-free DNA. Urinary cell-free DNA has the ability to give comprehensive and crucial information on cancer as it carries genetic messages from cells shedding directly into urine as well as transporting from circulation. As an indispensable component of liquid biopsy, urinary cell-free DNA is believed to have the potential of being a useful and ultra-noninvasive tool for cancer screening, diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of cancer progression and therapeutic effect. In this review, we provide the current insights into the clinical applications of urinary cell-free DNA in cancer. We also introduce the basic biological significance and some technical issues in the detection of urinary cell-free DNA.
液体活检作为一种揭示肿瘤分子图谱的工具正受到广泛关注，并在癌症个体化医疗方面具有巨大潜力。游离DNA是癌症液体活检的一个极其重要的组成部分，而尿液中的游离DNA因其作为一种超非侵入性样本来源相对于组织和血液具有显著优势而颇具前景。与在血液中广泛研究的游离DNA相比，人们对尿液游离DNA的作用了解较少。尿液游离DNA能够提供关于癌症的全面且关键的信息，因为它既携带直接脱落到尿液中的细胞的遗传信息，也携带来自循环系统的遗传信息。作为液体活检不可或缺的组成部分，尿液游离DNA被认为有潜力成为一种用于癌症筛查、诊断、预后以及监测癌症进展和治疗效果的有用且超非侵入性工具。在本综述中，我们阐述了目前对尿液游离DNA在癌症临床应用方面的见解。我们还介绍了尿液游离DNA检测中的基本生物学意义和一些技术问题。
