Department of Internal Medicine and Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, H-1083, Budapest, Hungary.
Department of Endocrinology, ENS@T Research Center of Excellence, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, H-1083, Budapest, Hungary.
Endocrine. 2022 Sep;77(3):425-431. doi: 10.1007/s12020-022-03066-z. Epub 2022 May 13.
Almost 10 years have passed since the first attempts of liquid biopsy aimed at the characterisation of tumor cells present in the bloodstream from a regular sample of peripheral blood were performed. Liquid biopsy has been used to characterise tumor heterogeneity in various types of solid tumors including adrenocortical carcinoma. The development of molecular biology, genetics, and methodological advances such as digital PCR and next-generation sequencing allowed us to use besides circulating tumor cells a variety of circulating cell-free nucleic acids, DNAs, RNAs and microRNAs secreted by tumors into blood and other body fluids as specific molecular markers. These markers are used for diagnosis, to check tumor development, selecting efficient therapies, therapy monitoring and even possess prognostic power. In adrenocortical carcinoma, there are some studies reporting analysis of circulating tumor cells, circulating cell free DNA and microRNAs for assessing tumor heterogeneity. Among microRNAs, hsa-miR-483-5p seems to be the most important player. Combined with other microRNAs like hsa-miR-195, their expression correlates with recurrence-free survival. Most studies support the applicability of liquid biopsy for assessing temporal tumor heterogeneity (i.e. tumor progression) in adrenocortical cancer. In this mini-review, the available findings of liquid biopsy for assessing tumor heterogeneity in adrenocortical cancer are presented.
自首次尝试从外周血常规样本中分析血液中存在的肿瘤细胞以进行液体活检以来，已经过去了近 10 年。液体活检已被用于描述各种实体瘤（包括肾上腺皮质癌）中的肿瘤异质性。分子生物学、遗传学的发展以及数字 PCR 和下一代测序等方法学的进步使我们除了可以使用循环肿瘤细胞外，还可以使用肿瘤分泌到血液和其他体液中的各种游离细胞核酸、DNA、RNA 和 microRNAs 作为特定的分子标志物。这些标志物可用于诊断、检查肿瘤发展、选择有效的治疗方法、治疗监测，甚至具有预后能力。在肾上腺皮质癌中，有一些研究报告分析了循环肿瘤细胞、循环游离 DNA 和 microRNAs，以评估肿瘤异质性。在 microRNAs 中，hsa-miR-483-5p 似乎是最重要的。与其他 microRNAs（如 hsa-miR-195）结合，它们的表达与无复发生存率相关。大多数研究支持液体活检在评估肾上腺皮质癌中肿瘤异质性（即肿瘤进展）方面的适用性。在这个迷你综述中，介绍了液体活检在评估肾上腺皮质癌肿瘤异质性方面的现有发现。
