Tancredi Richard, Sobhani Navid, Catalano Martina, Roviello Giandomenico, Generali Daniele
Multidisciplinary Unit of Breast Pathology and Translational Research, Cremona Hospital, 26100 Cremona, Italy.
Department of Cancer Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Genes (Basel). 2025 Apr 9;16(4):443. doi: 10.3390/genes16040443.
Breast cancer (BC) is the most commonly occurring type of cancer in women, being a major cancer-related cause of mortality worldwide. With the advancement in current therapeutic options, including hormone therapy and targeted therapies, there is a need for more accurate and less invasive options to monitor cancer progression in patients. Liquid biopsy has evolved rapidly, being able to detect small quantities of nucleic acids or cell-free DNA in the blood of BC patients. This method addresses three major issues of needle biopsy: firstly, it is more permissive by being less invasive and does not require needling the organs; secondly, it covers for the heterogeneous nature of the tumor of origin, which could lead to an otherwise inaccurate representation of the cancer-driving mutations; thirdly, it better represents the type of tumor that the primary tumor is going to evolve into before it starts to metastasize. This current review will address the current advancements in liquid biopsy in the context of BC, highlighting the pros and challenges.
乳腺癌（BC）是女性中最常见的癌症类型，是全球癌症相关死亡的主要原因。随着包括激素疗法和靶向疗法在内的当前治疗选择的进步，需要更准确、侵入性更小的方法来监测患者的癌症进展。液体活检发展迅速，能够检测BC患者血液中的少量核酸或游离DNA。这种方法解决了针吸活检的三个主要问题：首先，它侵入性较小，更为宽松，不需要对器官进行穿刺；其次，它涵盖了原发肿瘤的异质性，否则可能导致对癌症驱动突变的不准确描述；第三，它能更好地反映原发性肿瘤在开始转移之前将演变成的肿瘤类型。本综述将阐述BC背景下液体活检的当前进展，突出其优点和挑战。
