Roviello G, Lavacchi D, Antonuzzo L, Catalano M, Mini E. Liquid biopsy in colorectal cancer: No longer young, but not yet old. World J Gastroenterol 2022; 28(15): 1503-1507 [PMID: 35582130 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i15.1503]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Giandomenico Roviello, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Section of Clinical Pharmacology and Oncology, University of Florence, Viale Pieraccini, 6, Firenze 50139, Italy. giandomenico.roviello@unifi.it
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 21, 2022; 28(15): 1503-1507 Published online Apr 21, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i15.1503
Liquid biopsy in colorectal cancer: No longer young, but not yet old
Giandomenico Roviello, Daniele Lavacchi, Lorenzo Antonuzzo, Martina Catalano, Enrico Mini
Giandomenico Roviello, Enrico Mini, Department of Health Sciences, Section of Clinical Pharmacology and Oncology, University of Florence, Firenze 50139, Italy
Daniele Lavacchi, Clinical Oncology Unit, AOU Careggi, Firenze 50134, Italy
Lorenzo Antonuzzo, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Firenze, Firenze 50134, Italy
Martina Catalano, School of Human Health Sciences, University of Florence, Florence 50134, Italy
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this paper; Roviello G designed the overall concept and outline of the manuscript; Antonuzzo L and Mini E contributed to the discussion and design of the manuscript; Lavacchi D and Catalano M contributed to the writing and editing of the manuscript, illustrations, and literature review.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have nothing to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Giandomenico Roviello, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Section of Clinical Pharmacology and Oncology, University of Florence, Viale Pieraccini, 6, Firenze 50139, Italy. giandomenico.roviello@unifi.it
Received: March 26, 2021 Peer-review started: March 26, 2021 First decision: June 14, 2021 Revised: July 12, 2021 Accepted: March 14, 2022 Article in press: March 14, 2022 Published online: April 21, 2022
Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent cancers and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The treatment strategy employed in CRC patients is becoming highly dependent on molecular characteristics present at diagnosis and during treatment. Liquid biopsy is an emerging field in the management of this cancer, and its relevance as a potential diagnostic, prognostic, monitoring, and therapeutic tool makes it a viable strategy in the clinical management of CRC patients. Liquid biopsy also has certain limitations, but these limitations seem to be at the reach of near-future technological development. In this letter, we focus on the clinical perspectives of liquid biopsy in CRC with particular regard to the various biomarkers recently identified that have been shown to be potentially useful in multiple aspects of early stage or metastatic CRC.
Core Tip: Liquid biopsy through analysis of biological components, such as circulating nuclear acids, circulating tumor cells, and more recently exosomes in body fluids, has shown good capacity to overcome several limitations faced by conventional tissue biopsies, in particular invasiveness and unrepeatability. Liquid biopsy has shown significant results in clinical applications in different types of cancer, especially colorectal cancer (CRC). Indeed, liquid biopsy can be used to detect CRC at an early stage, make treatment decisions, monitor response to treatment, predict relapses and metastases, reveal tumor heterogeneity, and detect minimal residual disease.
