Yin Hang, Zhang Manjie, Zhang Yu, Zhang Xuebing, Zhang Xia, Zhang Bin
The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, 116000, China.
Dalian Medical University, Dalian, 116000, China.
Mol Biomed. 2025 Mar 20;6(1):18. doi: 10.1186/s43556-025-00257-8.
Cancer ranks among the most lethal diseases worldwide. Tissue biopsy is currently the primary method for the diagnosis and biological analysis of various solid tumors. However, this method has some disadvantages related to insufficient tissue specimen collection and intratumoral heterogeneity. Liquid biopsy is a noninvasive approach for identifying cancer-related biomarkers in peripheral blood, which allows for repetitive sampling across multiple time points. In the field of liquid biopsy, representative biomarkers include circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), and exosomes. Many studies have evaluated the prognostic and predictive roles of CTCs and ctDNA in various solid tumors. Although these studies have limitations, the results of most studies appear to consistently demonstrate the correlations of high CTC counts and ctDNA mutations with lower survival rates in cancer patients. Similarly, a reduction in CTC counts throughout therapy may be a potential prognostic indicator related to treatment response in advanced cancer patients. Moreover, the biochemical characteristics of CTCs and ctDNA can provide information about tumor biology as well as resistance mechanisms against targeted therapy. This review discusses the current clinical applications of liquid biopsy in cancer patients, emphasizing its possible utility in outcome prediction and treatment decision-making.
癌症是全球最致命的疾病之一。组织活检是目前对各种实体瘤进行诊断和生物学分析的主要方法。然而，这种方法存在一些缺点，如组织标本采集不足和肿瘤内异质性。液体活检是一种用于识别外周血中癌症相关生物标志物的非侵入性方法，它允许在多个时间点进行重复采样。在液体活检领域，代表性的生物标志物包括循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）、循环肿瘤DNA（ctDNA）和外泌体。许多研究评估了CTC和ctDNA在各种实体瘤中的预后和预测作用。尽管这些研究存在局限性，但大多数研究结果似乎一致表明，癌症患者中高CTC计数和ctDNA突变与较低生存率相关。同样，在整个治疗过程中CTC计数的减少可能是晚期癌症患者与治疗反应相关的潜在预后指标。此外，CTC和ctDNA的生化特征可以提供有关肿瘤生物学以及针对靶向治疗的耐药机制的信息。本综述讨论了液体活检在癌症患者中的当前临床应用，强调了其在结果预测和治疗决策中的可能效用。
