Diagnosis and treatment monitoring in breast cancer: how liquid biopsy can support patient management.

Abstract

Imaging and tissue biopsies represent the current gold standard for breast cancer diagnosis and patientmanagement. However, these practices are time-consuming, expensiveand require invasive procedures. Moreover, tissue biopsies do not capturespatial and temporal tumor heterogeneity. Conversely, liquid biopsy, which includes circulating tumor cells, circulating free nucleic acidsand extracellular vesicles, is minimally invasive, easy to performand can be repeated during a patient's follow-up. Increasing evidence alsosuggests thatliquid biopsy can be usedto efficiently screen and diagnose tumors at an early stage, and tomonitor changes in the tumor molecular profile. In the present review, clinical applications and prospects are discussed.