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Review
. 2021 May 10;13(9):2274.
doi: 10.3390/cancers13092274.

Liquid Biopsy in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Where Are We Now?

Filippo Pelizzaro  1 , Romilda Cardin  1 , Barbara Penzo  1 , Elisa Pinto  1 , Alessandro Vitale  2 , Umberto Cillo  2 , Francesco Paolo Russo  1 , Fabio Farinati  1
Affiliations
Review

Liquid Biopsy in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Where Are We Now?

Filippo Pelizzaro et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer related death worldwide. Diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers are urgently needed in order to improve patient survival. Indeed, the most widely used biomarkers, such as alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), have limited accuracy as both diagnostic and prognostic tests. Liver biopsy provides an insight on the biology of the tumor, but it is an invasive procedure, not routinely used, and not representative of the whole neoplasia due to the demonstrated intra-tumoral heterogeneity. In recent years, liquid biopsy, defined as the molecular analysis of cancer by-products, released by the tumor in the bloodstream, emerged as an appealing source of new biomarkers. Several studies focused on evaluating extracellular vesicles, circulating tumor cells, cell-free DNA and non-coding RNA as novel reliable biomarkers. In this review, we aimed to provide a comprehensive overview on the most relevant available evidence on novel circulating biomarkers for early diagnosis, prognostic stratification, and therapeutic monitoring. Liquid biopsy seems to be a very promising instrument and, in the near future, some of these new non-invasive tools will probably change the clinical management of HCC patients.

Keywords: biomarkers; circulating nucleic acids; circulating tumor cells; diagnosis; extracellular vesicles; hepatocellular carcinoma; liquid biopsy; prognosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Liquid biopsy is the molecular analysis of cancer by-products released in the bloodstream. Novel potential biomarkers are represented by circulating nucleic acids, extracellular vesicles (EVs), and circulating tumor cells (CTCs). (Adapted from Labgaa et al. [24]).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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