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Review
. 2022 Sep 1;23(17):9952.
doi: 10.3390/ijms23179952.

Liquid Biopsy as a Tool for the Diagnosis, Treatment, and Monitoring of Breast Cancer

Ana Julia Aguiar de Freitas  1 , Rhafaela Lima Causin  1 , Muriele Bertagna Varuzza  1 , Stéphanie Calfa  1 , Cassio Murilo Trovo Hidalgo Filho  2 , Tatiana Takahasi Komoto  1 , Cristiano de Pádua Souza  3 , Márcia Maria Chiquitelli Marques  1   4
Affiliations
Review

Liquid Biopsy as a Tool for the Diagnosis, Treatment, and Monitoring of Breast Cancer

Ana Julia Aguiar de Freitas et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) is a highly heterogeneous disease. The treatment of BC is complicated owing to intratumoral complexity. Tissue biopsy and immunohistochemistry are the current gold standard techniques to guide breast cancer therapy; however, these techniques do not assess tumoral molecular heterogeneity. Personalized medicine aims to overcome these biological and clinical complexities. Advances in techniques and computational analyses have enabled increasingly sensitive, specific, and accurate application of liquid biopsy. Such progress has ushered in a new era in precision medicine, where the objective is personalized treatment of breast cancer, early screening, accurate diagnosis and prognosis, relapse detection, longitudinal monitoring, and drug selection. Liquid biopsy can be defined as the sampling of components of tumor cells that are released from a tumor and/or metastatic deposits into the blood, urine, feces, saliva, and other biological substances. Such components include circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) or circulating tumor RNA (ctRNA), platelets, and exosomes. This review aims to highlight the role of liquid biopsy in breast cancer and precision medicine.

Keywords: breast cancer; liquid biopsy; precision medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Fluids that can be used as circulating biomarkers.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Main clinical uses of liquid biopsy with the biomarkers highlighted in the review.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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