Abstract SY15-03: Coding and noncoding genome for blood biopsy

Abstract

Abstract The development of effective diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers is crucial for early detection of cancer, prediction of clinical outcome, detection and monitoring minimal residual disease, and identification of patients who can benefit from therapy. Furthermore, they can provide important information of biological characteristics of tumor. Liquid biopsy, an alternative and non-invasive technique to surgical biopsy, enables the investigation of tumor markers in biological fluids, such as serum/plasma, urine, saliva, and pleural effusion. Increasing interest on liquid biopsy has grown over the past decade with particular focus on circulating non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) and tumor-derived cell-free DNA (cfDNA) as cancer biomarkers. Owing to their high abundance and stability in biological fluids, circulating ncRNAs and tumor-derived cell-free DNA have potential utility to provide information on tumor biology (e.g.: EGFR and PIK3CA mutational status) which can help both diagnosis and prediction of effects of treatments, including standard treatment, targeted therapies, and immunotherapies. Recent advances in the field have highlighted the role of circulating ncRNAs in cell-to-cell communication. Particularly, ncRNAs can be transported through extracellular vesicle-mediated transfer to recipient cells, where they exert their functions of gene expression regulation, with implications for cancer progression and therapy resistance. This characteristic of circulating ncRNAs introduces an additional step in the information on tumor biology that can be obtained from liquid biopsy. Besides cancer, ncRNAs can also serve as biomarkers for microbial infection. Indeed, miRNAs originated from non-human genomes (xeno-miRNAs), such as viral miRNAs (Epstein-Barr virus, Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus), have been shown to be present in human body fluids. They can be used as biomarkers for diagnosis, prediction of clinical outcome, and the can also mediate cell-to-cell communication. Liquid biopsy has the potential to serve as additional tool to improve diagnosis, prognosis, prediction of treatment responses, and can provide information of biological characteristics of tumor. Citation Format: Daniel F. Hayes, Catherine Alix-Panabières, George A. Calin. Coding and noncoding genome for blood biopsy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr SY15-03.