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. 2025 Jan;15(1_suppl):16S-28S.
doi: 10.1177/21925682231222012.

Liquid Biopsy for Spinal Tumors: On the Frontiers of Clinical Application

Sze Kiat Tan  1 , Chetan Bettegowda  1 , Stephen Yip  2 , Arjun Sahgal  3   4 , Laurence Rhines  5 , Jeremy Reynolds  6 , Aron Lazary  7   8 , Ilya Laufer  9 , Alessandro Gasbarrini  10 , Nicolas Dea  11 , J J Verlaan  12 , Ziya L Gokaslan  13 , Charles G Fisher  11 , Stefano Boriani  14 , Riccardo Cecchinato  14 , Matthew L Goodwin  15 , C Rory Goodwin  16 , Raphaële Charest-Morin  11
Affiliations

Liquid Biopsy for Spinal Tumors: On the Frontiers of Clinical Application

Sze Kiat Tan et al. Global Spine J. 2025 Jan.

Abstract

Study design: Narrative review.

Objectives: This article aims to provide a narrative review of the current state of research for liquid biopsy in spinal tumors and to discuss the potential application of liquid biopsy in the clinical management of patients with spinal tumors.

Methods: A comprehensive review of the literature was performed using PubMed, Google Scholar, Medline, Embase and Cochrane databases, and the review was limited to articles of English language. All the relevant articles which were identified to be related to liquid biomarker study in spinal tumors, were studied in full text.

Results: Liquid biopsy has revolutionized the field of precision medicine by guiding personalized clinical management of cancer patients based on the liquid biomarker status. In recent years, more research has been done to investigate its potential utilization in patients with tumors from the spine. Herein, we review the liquid biomarkers that have been proposed in different spine malignancies including chordoma, chondrosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, osteosarcoma, astrocytoma and ependymoma. We also discuss the wide window of opportunity to utilize these liquid biomarkers in diagnosis, treatment response, monitoring, and detection of minimal residual disease in patients with spinal tumors.

Conclusions: Liquid biomarkers, especially blood-derived circulating tumor DNA, has a promising clinical utility as they are disease-specific, minimally invasive, and the procedure is repeatable. Prospective studies with larger populations are needed to fully establish its use in the setting of spinal tumors.

Keywords: Ewing sarcoma; blood biomarkers; cerebrospinal fluid biomarker; chondrosarcoma; chordoma; circulating tumor DNA; ependymoma; liquid biopsy; osteosarcoma; spinal tumors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A schematic diagram of the different clinical stages where a liquid biopsy can be potentially utilized in patients with spinal tumors.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
An example of a chordoma case. (A) Patient presenting with a C3-C4 and C5 chordoma treated with en bloc resection in 2019. (B) Local recurrence at C2 in 2022.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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