Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 21, 2020; 26(15): 1708-1725
Published online Apr 21, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i15.1708
Blood-based biomarkers for early detection of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Ling-Yu Chu, Yu-Hui Peng, Xue-Fen Weng, Jian-Jun Xie, Yi-Wei Xu
Ling-Yu Chu, Jian-Jun Xie, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou 515041, Guangdong Province, China
Yu-Hui Peng, Xue-Fen Weng, Yi-Wei Xu, Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, the Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou 515041, Guangdong Province, China
Yu-Hui Peng, Xue-Fen Weng, Jian-Jun Xie, Yi-Wei Xu, Precision Medicine Research Center, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou 515041, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Chu LY collected the data and wrote the manuscript; Peng YH and Weng XF collected the data; Xie JJ and Xu YW supervised the work and revised the manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 31600632 and No. 81972801; Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, No. 2018A030307079 and No. 2019A1515011873; Innovative and Strong School Project of Guangdong, No. 2018KTSCX068; Key Disciplinary Project of Clinical Medicine under the Guangdong High-level University Development Program.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yi-Wei Xu, PhD, Associate Senior Technician, Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, the Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, 7 Raoping Road, Shantou 515041, Guangdong Province, China. yiwei512@126.com
Received: December 25, 2019
Peer-review started: December 25, 2019
First decision: January 16, 2020
Revised: March 13, 2020
Accepted: March 19, 2020
Article in press: March 19, 2020
Published online: April 21, 2020
Processing time: 117 Days and 22.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: At present, the early detection of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) mainly depends on endoscopy and histopathological biopsy. However, the high cost and invasiveness of endoscopy have limited its use as a tool for screening the general population. Blood tests provide a non-invasive method for early detection of ESCC. Therefore, this article reviews the recent advances in the discovery of blood-based biomarkers in the early detection of ESCC.