The detection of circulating tumor DNA via liquid biopsy has become an important diagnostic test for patients with cancer. While certain commercial liquid biopsy platforms designed to detect circulating tumor DNA have been approved to guide clinical decisions in advanced solid tumors, the clinical utility of these assays for detecting minimal residual disease after curative-intent treatment of nonmetastatic disease is currently limited. Predicting disease response and relapse has considerable potential for increasing the effective implementation of neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies. As a result, many companies are rapidly investing in the development of liquid biopsy platforms to detect circulating tumor DNA in the minimal residual disease setting. In this review, we discuss the development and clinical implementation of commercial liquid biopsy platforms for circulating tumor DNA minimal residual disease detection of solid tumors. Here, we aim to highlight the technological features that enable highly sensitive detection of tumor-derived genomic alterations, the factors that differentiate these commercial platforms, and the ongoing trials that seek to increase clinical implementation of liquid biopsies using circulating tumor DNA-based minimal residual disease detection.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.