Molecular Biology of Liquid Biopsy in Cancer
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 September 2024) | Viewed by 2893
Special Issue Editor
Interests: precision medicine; liquid biopsy; CTC; ctDNA; breast cancer; personalized treatment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Liquid biopsy has evolved into a comprehensive tool, moving beyond the mere enumeration of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to delving into their phenotypic intricacies. This shift has given rise to novel biomarker strategies, spotlighting the prognostic significance of diverse CTC phenotypes. Classification based on traits like nuclear size, content, and cytokeratin intensities has become a pivotal focus. Beyond traditional CTCs, EpCAM+/CK+ objects and fusion hybrids of neoplastic cells with leukocytes offer added prognostic insights. The enumeration and characterization of micro-sized tumor fragments and tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (tdEVs) serve as prognostic indicators in metastatic cancers. Exploring CTCs with attenuated CK expression and clusters reveals clinical relevance, associated with shorter progression-free survival (PFS) and worse OS. The observed CK expression variability underscores the importance of investigating the role of epithelial–mesenchymal transition in therapy resistance and metastasis. Moving forward, crucial attention is needed to characterize phenotypic heterogeneity at the single CTC level, providing insights into malignant progression and resistance biomarker identification.
Moreover, liquid biopsy emerges as a promising, non-invasive alternative for real-time tumor evolution assessment. Overcoming the limitations of spatial heterogeneity, clonal dynamics, and therapeutic pressure on biomarker analysis, liquid biopsy offers timely and repeatable tumor information. Various compounds, including nucleic acids, CTCs, extracellular vesicles, soluble factors, and tumor-educated platelets, present clinical utility in early diagnosis, minimal residual disease detection, prognosis, and treatment response. Extracellular vesicles play roles in angiogenesis, immune suppression, tumor microenvironment modulation, metastasis, and treatment resistance. Innovations in avoiding extracellular vesicle effects hold potential for advancing cancer treatments.
We welcome submissions to this Special Issue that explore a wide range of topics related to molecular research into liquid biopsy in cancer, including, but not limited to, the following:
- Identification of molecular biomarkers for early diagnosis, risk classification, and prognosis;
- Utility of liquid biopsy in detecting minimal residual disease and predicting treatment response;
- Elucidation of molecular mechanisms influenced by extracellular vesicles and the development of targeted therapeutic strategies;
- Investigation of tumor-related circulating cells and their implications in cancer progression;
- Application of artificial intelligence for the analysis of liquid biopsy data;
- Exploration of clonal hematopoiesis and its impact on liquid biopsy results;
- Standardization of methodologies associated with liquid biopsy procedures;
- Development of innovative techniques for analyzing tumor components in liquid biopsy samples.
Dr. Valentina Magri
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- liquid biopsy
- Exosomes
- Non-coding RNA
- cancer
- molecular biology
- early diagnosis
- minimal residual disease
- treatment response prediction
- extracellular vesicles
- targeted therapeutic strategies
- circulating tumor cells
- clonal hematopoiesis
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