Liquid biopsy has emerged as a promising avenue for cancer screening. Several circulating biomarkers such as circulating DNA, circulating tumor cells, circulating microRNAs and others have shown promise for theragnostics and patient's monitoring. Early detection may help reduce cancer-related mortality and increase overall patient survival. Most cancer types lack specific biomarkers and despite intensive efforts in this area, the development of effective clinical screening techniques has been limited. The noninvasive nature of liquid biopsy represents an advantage over other approaches to define cancer biomarkers, particularly for the development of cancer screening tests. This review presents the various studies based on the analysis of liquid biopsy aiming to develop tests for cancer screening and early detection. So far, no test developed from liquid biopsy proves to be both specific and sensitive enough to be used as a universal screening test. However, the potential of this new approach appears more and more credible, given the recent developments of sophisticated multi-parametric methods.
© 2018 médecine/sciences – Inserm.