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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 7, 2016; 22(25): 5627-5641
Published online Jul 7, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i25.5627
Liquid biopsy in patients with pancreatic cancer: Circulating tumor cells and cell-free nucleic acids
Taisuke Imamura, Shuhei Komatsu, Daisuke Ichikawa, Tsutomu Kawaguchi, Mahito Miyamae, Wataru Okajima, Takuma Ohashi, Tomohiro Arita, Hirotaka Konishi, Atsushi Shiozaki, Ryo Morimura, Hisashi Ikoma, Kazuma Okamoto, Eigo Otsuji
Taisuke Imamura, Shuhei Komatsu, Daisuke Ichikawa, Tsutomu Kawaguchi, Mahito Miyamae, Wataru Okajima, Takuma Ohashi, Tomohiro Arita, Hirotaka Konishi, Atsushi Shiozaki, Ryo Morimura, Hisashi Ikoma, Kazuma Okamoto, Eigo Otsuji, Division of Digestive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan
Author contributions: Imamura T and Komatsu S equally contributed to this work; Imamura T and Komatsu S wrote the manuscript; Ichikawa D, Okamoto K and Otsuji E helped to draft the manuscript; Kawaguchi T, Miyamae M, Okajima W, Ohashi T, Arita T, Konishi H, Shiozaki A, Morimura R and Ikoma H collected the literatures.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Shuhei Komatsu, MD, PhD, Division of Digestive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kajii-cho, Kawaramachihirokoji, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan. skomatsu@koto.kpu-m.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-75-2515527 Fax: +81-75-2515522
Received: March 27, 2016
Peer-review started: March 28, 2016
First decision: May 12, 2016
Revised: May 25, 2016
Accepted: June 15, 2016
Article in press: June 15, 2016
Published online: July 7, 2016
Processing time: 98 Days and 16.9 Hours
Abstract

Despite recent advances in surgical techniques and perioperative management, the prognosis of pancreatic cancer (PCa) remains extremely poor. To provide optimal treatment for each patient with Pca, superior biomarkers are urgently needed in all phases of management from early detection to staging, treatment monitoring, and prognosis. In the blood of patients with cancer, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and cell-free nucleic acids (cfNAs), such as DNA, mRNA, and noncoding RNA have been recognized. In the recent years, their presence in the blood has encouraged researchers to investigate their potential use as novel blood biomarkers, and numerous studies have demonstrated their potential clinical utility as a biomarker for certain types of cancer. This concept, called “liquid biopsy” has been focused on as a less invasive, alternative approach to cancer tissue biopsy for obtaining genetic and epigenetic aberrations that contribute to oncogenesis and cancer progression. In this article, we review the available literature on CTCs and cfNAs in patients with cancer, particularly focusing on PCa, and discuss future perspectives in this field.

Keywords: Pancreatic cancer; Biomarker; Liquid biopsy; Circulating tumor cells; Cell-free nucleic acids

Core tip: In the blood of patients with cancer, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and cell-free nucleic acids (cfNAs), such as DNA, mRNA, and noncoding RNA have been recognized. In the recent years, their presence in the blood has encouraged researchers to investigate their potential use as novel blood biomarkers. This concept, called “liquid biopsy” has been focused on as a less invasive, alternative approach to cancer tissue biopsy for obtaining genetic and epigenetic aberrations that contribute to oncogenesis and cancer progression. In this article, we review the available literature on CTCs and cfNAs in patients with cancer, particularly focusing on pancreatic cancer.