Abstract
The molecular profiling of tumors is fundamental in the management of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A tissue specimen obtained from biopsy is needed for diagnosis and mutation analysis. However, this may not be feasible for some metastatic sites, such as central nervous system (CNS) lesions, particularly for repeated biopsy. Liquid biopsy with plasma is an emerging tool for molecular testing and could be a surrogate method if tissue cannot be obtained. However, the use of plasma is limited for the detection of mutations arising from intracranial lesions. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was recently demonstrated to be an alternative material for genetic testing in patients with NSCLC having CNS metastasis. In this review, we discuss recent advancement in the use of CSF as a medium of liquid biopsy in patients with NSCLC.
Highlights
Liquid biopsy with plasma is an emerging tool for molecular testing and could be a surrogate method if tissue cannot be obtained [15]
We reviewed relevant Englishlanguage journals articles indexed in PubMed from January 2000 to August 2021
Ruan et al [35] further sequenced the Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulating tumor cells (CTC) from patients with lung adenocarcinoma into a single cell level and found that metastatic-CTCs were enriched for metabolic and cell-adhesion pathways
Summary
The presence of malignant cells in CSF remains the gold standard for diagnosing LM; the sensitivity of a single lumbar puncture is low and repeated sampling is often needed [12, 21]. Some technical issues such as inadequate CSF volume for the analysis or delayed processing may lead to false negative results [22].
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