Department of Oncology, Vaasa Central Hospital, Vaasa, Finland,
Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy, University of Turku, Turku, Finland,
Oncology. 2019;96(3):115-124. doi: 10.1159/000495615. Epub 2019 Jan 17.
Cancer therapy decisions are often made according to the histopathological-molecular profile of tumor tissue obtained from surgery or biopsy. It has been shown that tumor profiles change with time and treatment, and that tumor tissue is heterogeneous. Thus, other approaches that are easily accessible and less invasive than surgery or biopsy to monitor responses to treatment and predict relapses are urgently needed. In the last few years, the term "liquid biopsies" has been introduced to represent multifunctional circulating biomarkers in the peripheral blood and other physiological fluids of patients with cancer. Liquid biopsies are a noninvasive alternative to tissue biopsies, but they have not been implemented in routine clinical practice for breast cancer. In addition, liquid biopsies seem to be a promising approach for personalized medicine, which enables the prediction, monitoring, and rational selection of appropriate therapy for individual patients. In this review, we outline recent progress and current challenges with liquid biopsies in clinical practice for breast cancer diagnosis, treatment choices, and responses to therapy from a clinician's perspective.
癌症治疗决策通常是根据手术或活检获得的肿瘤组织的组织病理学-分子特征来做出的。已经表明，肿瘤特征随时间和治疗而变化，并且肿瘤组织是异质的。因此，迫切需要其他比手术或活检更容易获得且侵入性更小的方法来监测治疗反应并预测复发。在过去几年中，“液体活检”一词被引入，以代表患者外周血和其他生理液中的多功能循环生物标志物。液体活检是组织活检的一种非侵入性替代方法，但尚未在乳腺癌的常规临床实践中实施。此外，液体活检似乎是一种很有前途的个性化医疗方法，它能够预测、监测和合理选择适合个体患者的治疗方法。在这篇综述中，我们从临床医生的角度概述了液体活检在乳腺癌诊断、治疗选择和治疗反应方面的最新进展和当前挑战。
