Arrichiello Gianluca, Nacca Valeria, Paragliola Fernando, Giunta Emilio Francesco
Oncology Unit, Department of Precision Medicine, Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, 80131 Naples, Italy.
Department of Experimental Medicine, Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, 80138 Naples, Italy.
Explor Target Antitumor Ther. 2022;3(3):362-374. doi: 10.37349/etat.2022.00087. Epub 2022 Jun 22.
Biliary tract cancer (BTC) is an aggressive tumor characterized by a poor prognosis. In the latest years, targetable genetic alterations have been discovered in BTC patients, leading to the approval of new targeted therapies. Liquid biopsy, which is a non-invasive method for detecting tumor biomarkers from fluid samples, is a useful tool for diagnosis and molecular characterization, but also for prognosis assessment and monitoring of treatment response. In this review, recent works on liquid biopsy in BTC patients were analyzed, focusing on some relevant aspects for clinical use and trying to depict the future role of this technique. Moreover, differences between plasma and bile samples were pointed out, in light of the peculiar biology of BTC and the possibility of using bile as an alternative source of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) for genomic analysis. In the era of precision oncology, the increasing adoption of liquid biopsy in BTC patients will certainly improve the management of this disease.
胆管癌（BTC）是一种侵袭性肿瘤，预后较差。近年来，在BTC患者中发现了可靶向的基因改变，从而促成了新的靶向治疗药物获批。液体活检是一种从体液样本中检测肿瘤生物标志物的非侵入性方法，它不仅是诊断和分子特征分析的有用工具，也是预后评估和治疗反应监测的有用工具。在这篇综述中，分析了近期关于BTC患者液体活检的研究工作，重点关注临床应用的一些相关方面，并试图描述该技术的未来作用。此外，鉴于BTC独特的生物学特性以及将胆汁作为无细胞DNA（cfDNA）替代来源用于基因组分析的可能性，还指出了血浆和胆汁样本之间的差异。在精准肿瘤学时代，液体活检在BTC患者中的日益应用必将改善这种疾病的管理。
