Abstract
One of the key challenges facing today’s oncology is the discovery of early predictors of malignant neoplasms in patients’ biological samples. Liquid biopsy is a noninvasive diagnostic technique based on the detection and isolation of tumor cells, tumor-derived nucleic acid and exosomes circulating in the blood plasma of cancer patients. There is a plethora of research studies of circulating tumor DNA in patients with MN. The active proliferation of tumor cells occurs in the backdrop of altered gene expression. The presence of tissue-specific transcripts in the circulating RNA fraction suggests that levels of circulating RNA reflect the development of the primary tumor. We think that cell-free RNA circulating in the blood plasma is a promising molecular biomarker for early cancer detection.
Highlights
Diagnostic tests known as liquid biopsies hold promise for the future of cancer screening. They are capable of detecting tumor-derived biomarkers in the blood serum of patients with malignant neoplasms (MN), including circulating tumor cells, circulating tumor DNA or RNA, and exosomes
From the early stages of carcinogenesis through the advanced stages of metastatic spread, tumor cells accumulate specific mutations and epigenetic modifications; these changes can be spotted by the analysis of cell-free nucleic acids
The active proliferation of tumor cells and tumor evolution are accompanied by the pronounced changes in the abundance of various transcripts, some of which, like mRNA, can be quantified by RT-PCR [18]
Summary
Diagnostic tests known as liquid biopsies hold promise for the future of cancer screening. They are capable of detecting tumor-derived biomarkers in the blood serum of patients with malignant neoplasms (MN), including circulating tumor cells, circulating tumor DNA or RNA, and exosomes. The analysis of cell-free nucleic acids circulating in the blood plasma allows assessing the genetic heterogeneity of the tumor in response to anti-cancer therapy [2, 3]. It is known that apoptotic and necrotic cells release DNA or RNA fragments and exosomes (membrane-bound encapsulated subcellular structures containing proteins and nucleic acids derived from tumor cells) into the bloodstream [4]. From the early stages of carcinogenesis through the advanced stages of metastatic spread, tumor cells accumulate specific mutations and epigenetic modifications; these changes can be spotted by the analysis of cell-free nucleic acids
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