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Current and Emerging Utility of Liquid Biopsy in Cancers: More...
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Current and Emerging Utility of Liquid Biopsy in Cancers: More than Surrogate Biomarkers (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Biomarkers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 March 2025 | Viewed by 2806

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Marta Dueñas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Molecular and Translational Oncology Unit, Department of Biomedical Innovation at CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain
Interests: liquid biopsy and tumor cells biomarkers in genitourinary tumors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is the second edition of a previous Special Issue, "Current and Emerging Utility of Liquid Biopsy in Cancers: More than Surrogate Biomarkers" (link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/cancers/special_issues/Liquid_Biopsy_Utility).

Liquid biopsy has emerged as a reliable tool for tumor surveillance in studying disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow and circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood, providing crucial insights into cancer biology and the metastatic process. More recently, the development of the detection and characterization of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and other molecules either free or as extracellular vessels have enabled the introduction of liquid biopsy assays into clinical practice; however, little is known about the circulating tumor microenvironment at the cellular and biomarker levels and its potential implementation in determining the best molecular targeted therapies for cancer. In this context, this Special Issue will focus on the clinical application of liquid biopsy in cancer treatment, cancer screening, diagnosis, and follow-up, and the best potential personalized therapies. This Special Issue will be focused on technology, methodologies, and logistics for the eventual integration of liquid biopsy into the clinical workflow.

We are pleased to invite you to participate in this Special Issue, which will focus on the state of the art and latest findings in circulating tumor biomarkers, circulating tumor cells (CTCs), tumor hybrid cells (THCs), ctDNA and ctRNA (coding and noncoding), protein analysis, and clinical evidence for the implementation of liquid biopsy in clinical practice.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Application of liquid biopsy in cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and clinical management;
  • Circulating tumor cells in blood sample characterization;
  • DNAs, RNAs, and proteins as cancer biomarkers in biofluids;
  • Liquid biopsy approximations in immunotherapy response prediction.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Marta Dueñas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • liquid biopsy
  • ctDNA
  • ctRNA
  • cytokine profiling
  • tumor biomarkers
  • CTC
  • THC

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 2947 KiB  
Article
Circulating Neoplastic-Immune Hybrid Cells Are Biomarkers of Occult Metastasis and Treatment Response in Pancreatic Cancer
by Ranish K. Patel, Michael Parappilly, Hannah C. Farley, Emile J. Latour, Lei G. Wang, Ashvin M. Nair, Ethan S. Lu, Zachary Sims, Byung Park, Katherine Nelson, Skye C. Mayo, Gordon B. Mills, Brett C. Sheppard, Young Hwan Chang, Summer L. Gibbs, Adel Kardosh, Charles D. Lopez and Melissa H. Wong
Cancers 2024, 16(21), 3650; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16213650 - 29 Oct 2024
Viewed by 791
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) presents significant diagnostic and prognostic challenges, as current biomarkers frequently fail to accurately stage disease, predict rapid metastatic recurrence (rPDAC), or assess response to neoadjuvant therapy (NAT). We investigated the potential for circulating neoplastic-immune hybrid cells (CHCs) as [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) presents significant diagnostic and prognostic challenges, as current biomarkers frequently fail to accurately stage disease, predict rapid metastatic recurrence (rPDAC), or assess response to neoadjuvant therapy (NAT). We investigated the potential for circulating neoplastic-immune hybrid cells (CHCs) as a non-invasive, multifunctional biomarker for PDAC. Methods: Peripheral blood specimens were obtained from patients diagnosed with PDAC. CHCs were detected by co-expression of pan-cytokeratin and CD45, normalized to 50,000 peripheral blood mononuclear cells. rPDAC was defined as metastatic recurrence within six months of margin-negative pancreatectomy. Cyclic immunofluorescence (CyCIF) analyses compared hybrid phenotypes in blood and tumors. Results: Blood samples were collected from 42 patients with PDAC prior to resection. Those with radiographically occult metastatic disease and rPDAC had higher preoperative CHC numbers compared to patients who did not (65.0 and 74.4, vs. 11.52 CHCs; p < 0.001). Patients with complete or near-complete pathologic responses to NAT had lower preoperative CHC numbers than partial and/or non-responders (1.7 vs. 13.1 CHCs; p = 0.008). When assessed longitudinally, those with partial pathologic response saw CHC levels become undetectable while on treatment but increase in the interval between NAT completion and resection. In contrast, patients with poor responses or development of metastatic disease experienced persistent CHC detection during therapy or rising levels prior to radiographic evidence of metastases. Further, in metastatic PDAC patients, treatment-induced phenotypic changes in hybrid cells mirrored those in paired metastatic tumor samples. Conclusions: CHC enumeration and phenotyping display promise as a real-time indicator of disease burden, recurrence risk, and treatment response in PDAC. CHCs have great potential as tumor-derived biomarkers to optimize therapeutic strategies and improve survival in patients with PDAC. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current and Emerging Utility of Liquid Biopsy in Cancers: More than Surrogate Biomarkers (2nd Edition))
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Review

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16 pages, 704 KiB  
Review
Current Challenges of Methylation-Based Liquid Biopsies in Cancer Diagnostics
by Tomas Rendek, Ondrej Pos, Terezia Duranova, Rami Saade, Jaroslav Budis, Vanda Repiska and Tomas Szemes
Cancers 2024, 16(11), 2001; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16112001 - 24 May 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1590
Abstract
In current clinical practice, effective cancer testing and screening paradigms are limited to specific types of cancer, exhibiting varying efficiency, acceptance, and adherence. Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) methylation profiling holds promise in providing information about the presence of malignity regardless of its type and [...] Read more.
In current clinical practice, effective cancer testing and screening paradigms are limited to specific types of cancer, exhibiting varying efficiency, acceptance, and adherence. Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) methylation profiling holds promise in providing information about the presence of malignity regardless of its type and location while leveraging blood-based liquid biopsies as a method to obtain analytical samples. However, technical difficulties, costs and challenges resulting from biological variations, tumor heterogeneity, and exogenous factors persist. This method exploits the mechanisms behind cfDNA release but faces issues like fragmentation, low concentrations, and high background noise. This review explores cfDNA methylation’s origins, means of detection, and profiling for cancer diagnostics. The critical evaluation of currently available multi-cancer early detection methods (MCEDs) as well as tests targeting single genes, emphasizing their potential and limits to refine strategies for early cancer detection, are explained. The current methodology limitations, workflows, comparisons of clinically approved liquid biopsy-based methylation tests for cancer, their utilization in companion diagnostics as well as the biological limitations of the epigenetics approach are discussed, aiming to help healthcare providers as well as researchers to orient themselves in this increasingly complex and evolving field of diagnostics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current and Emerging Utility of Liquid Biopsy in Cancers: More than Surrogate Biomarkers (2nd Edition))
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