Pathology and Laboratory Medicine · Vol. 1, No. 1 · 2016 · pp. 3–6 · e-ISSN 2996-5942

Liquid Biopsies: Handle With Care

Deyali Chatterjee

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17140/plmoj-1-102 · Published 2016-02-01 · Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 · © 2016 The Author(s)

Also available as PDF (figures and tables appear in the PDF).

Abstract

Possibly the first mention of the term ‘liquid biopsy’ (as it is understood today) in the scientific literature appears in a report about the 7th International Symposium on Minimal Residual Cancer (ISMRC) held in Athens, Greece in 2009.1 The symposium had focused on, among other things, Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) and their relationship to Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs). In that symposium, it was reported that Howard Scher of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center described the application of CTCs in the evaluation of therapies directed at castration-resistant prostate cancer, as a ‘liquid biopsy’. With time, the term has slowly gained popularity: as of 24th January, 2016, 237 PubMed articles have the term ‘liquid biopsy’ in the title or the abstract.

Conclusion

Liquid biopsies are an exciting development in the management of cancer and other pathologies. It promises better clinical outcomes through earlier diagnosis and personalized treatments. However, much of these claims remain unproved in large scale double blinded clinical trials. The answers may be thrown up in the coming years as the new startups launch a series of clinical trials aimed at proving the value of their technologies. Pathologists and clinicians alike should keep these caveats in mind before adopting the new paradigm.

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