Editorial: Liquid biopsy: A tool for better understanding of the metastatic process ecosystem

Liquid biopsy: A tool for better understanding of the metastatic process ecosystemLiquid biopsy is a non-or minimally-invasive procedure that allows retrieving analytes of different nature and different origins from body fluids including blood, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).In the field of oncology, this sampling strategy has gained considerable attention and a growing number of technologies have been developed to inspect -in a fairly quick and economical way-circulating tumor cells (CTCs), extracellular vesicles (EVs), circulating-free tumor (ct) DNA, RNA, and a variety of non-coding RNAs from blood.Initially, these biomarkers have been gauged for their value as clinical indicators for diagnosis, prognosis as well as biomarkers for response to therapeutic regimens (1, 2).However, CTCs, ct nucleic acids, and EVs also play an active role in the metastatic process (3, 4), suggesting that liquid biopsy might also provide new opportunities to explore the biological and molecular mechanisms of tumor dissemination.On the one hand, CTCs have proven metastasis-initiating properties, indicating that these cells have the potential to inform on the molecular features necessary to reach and colonize distant organs.On the other hand, the ability of primary tumors to successfully spread to distant organs is dependent on interactions with microenvironments in distinct niches, and both CTCs (either alone, in clusters or aggregated with platelets/lymphocytes) and tumor-derived genetic material have been previously established as pivotal players in shaping such communication cues (5-8).Thus, the opportunity to detect blood-borne analytes should have a profound impact on our understanding of the systemic disease, and consequently on the management and monitoring of human malignancies.

Abstract licence: CC BY

1. 2.

   Serial monitoring of circulating tumor DNA in patients with primary breast cancer for detection of occult metastatic disease · 2015

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