This volume, with chapters written by experts in the field of cancerous
tumors, details the key factors associated with liquid biopsies in solid
tumors: blood-based diagnostics; circulating tumor cells; enumeration
and molecular analysis (association with breast cancer);
epithelialmesenchymal transition; detection and monitoring;
circulating-free tumor DNA; CTCs and ctDNA; and the exosome. The field
of blood-based diagnostics is rapidly evolving demonstrating the
possibility of real-time molecular analysis of cancer cells and their
phenotype and genotype.
Circulating Tumor Cell (CTCs) have demonstrated prognostic and
predictive value in advanced cancer and represents a source of tumor
cells for transcriptome and genomic analysis. Most recently, the
detection of genomic abnormalities in the peripheral blood by sensitive
and selective PCR methods (liquid biopsy) opened to the option of a
comprehensive blood-based tumor analysis. Similar information can be
obtained by analysis of exosome, a natural packaging and messaging
system being explored in advanced malignancies. The final frontier is
the evaluation of immune cells determinant of innate and adaptive
immunity.
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