Abstract
Liquid biopsies hold the potential to inform cancer patient prognosis and to guide treatment decisions at the time when direct tumor biopsy may be impractical due to its invasive nature, inaccessibility and associated complications. Specifically, circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have shown promising results as companion diagnostic biomarkers for screening, prognostication and/or patient surveillance in many cancer types. In ovarian cancer (OC), CTC and ctDNA analysis allow comprehensive molecular profiling of the primary, metastatic and recurrent tumors. These biomarkers also correlate with overall tumor burden and thus, they provide minimally-invasive means for patient monitoring during clinical course to ascertain therapy response and timely treatment modification in the context of disease relapse. Here, we review recent reports of the potential clinical value of CTC and ctDNA in OC, expatiating on their use in diagnosis and prognosis. We critically appraise the current evidence, and discuss the issues that still need to be addressed before liquid biopsies can be implemented in routine clinical practice for OC management.
Keywords
Cell-free DNA (cfDNA), Circulating tumor cells (CTC), Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), Diagnosis, Ovarian cancer, Prognosis, bevacizumab, cell adhesion molecule, chloroplast DNA, circulating tumor DNA, cisplatin, cytokeratin, doxorubicin, epidermal growth factor receptor 2, epithelial cell adhesion molecule, gemcitabine, mucin 1, nerve cell adhesion molecule, paclitaxel, vimentin, cancer prognosis, cancer staging, cell count, circulating tumor cell, diagnostic accuracy, digital polymerase chain reaction, disease association, DNA determination, DNA methylation, early cancer diagnosis, enrichment culture, fluorescence in situ hybridization, gene frequency, human, immunohistochemistry, limit of detection, liquid biopsy, methylation specific polymerase chain reaction, next generation sequencing, ovary cancer, overall survival, patient monitoring, priority journal, progression free survival, promoter region, sensitivity and specificity, Short Survey, survival prediction, survival time, treatment response, tumor volume, whole genome sequencing
Document Type
Other
Date of Publication
1-1-2020
Publication Title
Cancer Letters
Publisher
Elsevier
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences
RAS ID
29987
Funders
Edith Cowan University PhD Scholarship.
Cancer Research Trust and Cancer Council Western Australia.
Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group (ANZGOG).
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Asante, D. B., Calapre, L., Ziman, M., Meniawy, T. M., & Gray, E. S. (2020). Liquid biopsy in ovarian cancer using circulating tumor DNA and cells: Ready for prime time?. Cancer Letters, 468, 59-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canlet.2019.10.014