Department of Clinical Laboratory, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
Department of Clinical Laboratory, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Anhui Medical University, Key Laboratory of Anti-inflammatory and Immune Medicine, Ministry of Education, Anhui Collaborative Innovation Center of Anti-inflammatory and Immune Medicine, Anhui Anti-inflammatory and Immune Medicine innovation team, Hefei, China.
Curr Probl Cancer. 2020 Apr;44(2):100516. doi: 10.1016/j.currproblcancer.2019.100516. Epub 2019 Nov 18.
In 2015, liquid biopsy was rated one of the top 10 breakthrough technologies of the year by MIT Technology Review. Liquid biopsy is a type of in vitro diagnostic method involving a noninvasive blood test. It is also a breakthrough technology used to detect tumors and cancers and assist in therapeutic strategies. The most widely used markers are circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). Primary carcinoma of the liver is a malignancy of hepatocytes or intrahepatic biliary epithelial cells. The most common type of liver cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the causes of which mainly include infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and/or hepatitis C virus (HCV), alcohol abuse, aflatoxicosis, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease/ nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. As there are few typical clinical characteristics during the early stage of the disease, early diagnosis of HCC is very challenging. However, CTCs and ctDNA carry tumor-specific information. Therefore, the detection and analysis of CTCs and ctDNA can provide evidence for the early diagnosis of HCC and guide treatment. Furthermore, several studies have indicated that different inducers of HCC cause different DNA mutations, and accordingly, detection of specific mutations in ctDNA will facilitate the determination of the HCC type and help physicians provide distinctive therapies.
2015 年，麻省理工学院技术评论将液体活检评为当年十大突破技术之一。液体活检是一种涉及非侵入性血液检测的体外诊断方法。它也是一种用于检测肿瘤和癌症并辅助治疗策略的突破性技术。最广泛使用的标志物是循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）和循环肿瘤 DNA（ctDNA）。原发性肝癌是肝细胞或肝内胆管上皮细胞的恶性肿瘤。最常见的肝癌类型是肝细胞癌（HCC），其主要病因包括乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）和/或丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染、酗酒、黄曲霉毒素和非酒精性脂肪性肝病/非酒精性脂肪性肝炎。由于疾病早期几乎没有典型的临床特征，因此 HCC 的早期诊断极具挑战性。然而，CTC 和 ctDNA 携带肿瘤特异性信息。因此，检测和分析 CTC 和 ctDNA 可为 HCC 的早期诊断提供依据，并指导治疗。此外，多项研究表明，不同的 HCC 诱导物会导致不同的 DNA 突变，因此，检测 ctDNA 中的特定突变将有助于确定 HCC 类型，并帮助医生提供有针对性的治疗。
