Published online Jun 6, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i11.2066
Peer-review started: January 21, 2020
First decision: March 15, 2020
Revised: April 10, 2020
Accepted: April 29, 2020
Article in press: April 29, 2020
Published online: June 6, 2020
Digestive tract cancer is one of the main diseases that endanger human health. At present, the early diagnosis of digestive tract tumors mainly depends on serology, imaging, endoscopy, and so on. Although tissue specimens are the gold standard for cancer diagnosis, with the rapid development of precision medicine in cancer, the demand for dynamic monitoring of tumor molecular characteristics has increased. Liquid biopsy involves the collection of body fluids via non-invasive approaches, and analyzes biological markers such as circulating tumor cells, circulating tumor DNA, circulating cell-free DNA, microRNAs, and exosomes. In recent years, liquid biopsy has become more and more important in the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer in clinical practice due to its convenience, non-invasiveness, high specificity and it overcomes temporal-spatial heterogeneity. Therefore, this review summarizes the current evidence on liquid biopsies in digestive tract cancers in relation to diagnosis and prognosis.
Core tip: Digestive tract cancers can be divided into several types. In this article, we reviewed the relevant research on liquid biopsies used for the diagnosis and prognosis of each type of cancer.