Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Nov 15, 2021; 13(11): 1799-1812
Published online Nov 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i11.1799
Cell-free DNA liquid biopsy for early detection of gastrointestinal cancers: A systematic review
Isabelle Uhe, Monika Elisabeth Hagen, Frédéric Ris, Jeremy Meyer, Christian Toso, Jonathan Douissard
Isabelle Uhe, Monika Elisabeth Hagen, Frédéric Ris, Jeremy Meyer, Christian Toso, Jonathan Douissard, Abdominal Surgery Division, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva 1211, Switzerland
Author contributions: Uhe I and Douissard J designed the review, performed studies selection, data analysis, and wrote the manuscript. All authors performed critical revision of the manuscript and approved its final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. Uhe and Dr. Meyer have nothing to disclose. Dr. Hagen reports grants from Intuitive Surgical Inc., grants, personal fees and non-financial support from Johnson&Johnson Inc., personal fees and non-financial support from Verb Surgical Inc., personal fees from Verily, non-financial support from Quantgene Inc., personal fees from I2X, outside the submitted work. Pr. Ris reports personal fees and non-financial support from Stryker Inc., grants from Quantgene Inc., outside the submitted work. Pr. Toso reports grants, personal fees, and non-financial support from Johnson&Johnson Inc., outside the submitted work. Dr. Douissard reports grants and non-financial support from Intuitive Surgical Inc., personal fees from Verb Surgical Inc., grants, personal fees, and non-financial support from Johnson&Johnson Inc., outside the submitted work.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: This systematic review of the literature was performed following the PRISMA 2009 guidelines.
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: Jonathan Douissard, MD, Surgeon, Abdominal Surgery Division, Geneva University Hospitals, Rue Gabrielle Perret Gentil 4, Geneva 1211, Switzerland. jonathan.douissard@hcuge.ch
Received: March 1, 2021
Peer-review started: March 1, 2021
First decision: June 23, 2021
Revised: July 6, 2021
Accepted: September 7, 2021
Article in press: September 7, 2021
Published online: November 15, 2021
Processing time: 255 Days and 16.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Liquid biopsy cell-free DNA represents a promising non-invasive method for detecting various gastrointestinal cancers at an early stage of development. The current literature suggests a high-performance profile for this technology and the potential to improve the global course of gastrointestinal cancers currently diagnosed at an advanced stage, such as pancreatic cancer. Prospective validation studies in relevant clinical settings are required to determine the applicability and added value of these new diagnostic and screening tests in global cancer care.