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Cell-free DNA technologies for the analysis of brain cancer.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Article

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Abstract

Survival for glioma patients has shown minimal improvement over the past 20 years. The ability to detect and monitor gliomas relies primarily upon imaging technologies that lack sensitivity and specificity, especially during the post-surgical treatment phase. Treatment-response monitoring with an effective liquid-biopsy paradigm may also provide the most facile clinical scenario for liquid-biopsy integration into brain-tumour care. Conceptually, liquid biopsy is advantageous when compared with both tissue sampling (less invasive) and imaging (more sensitive and specific), but is hampered by technical and biological problems. These problems predominantly relate to low concentrations of tumour-derived DNA in the bloodstream of glioma patients. In this review, we highlight methods by which the neuro-oncological scientific and clinical communities have attempted to circumvent this limitation. The use of novel biological, technological and computational approaches will be explored. The utility of alternate bio-fluids, tumour-guided sequencing, epigenomic and fragmentomic methods may eventually be leveraged to provide the biological and technological means to unlock a wide range of clinical applications for liquid biopsy in glioma.

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Keywords

Animals, Biomarkers, Tumor, Brain Neoplasms, Cell-Free Nucleic Acids, Early Detection of Cancer, Humans, Liquid Biopsy, Neoplastic Cells, Circulating, Precision Medicine

Journal Title

Br J Cancer

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0007-0920
1532-1827

Volume Title

126

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
KWF Kankerbestrijding (Dutch Cancer Society) (12822)