The breast is yet to come: current and future utility of circulating tumour DNA in breast cancer

Advances in genomic strategies and the development of targeted therapies have enabled precision medicine to revolutionise the field of oncology. Precision medicine uses patient-specific genetic and molecular information, traditionally obtained from tumour biopsy samples, to classify tumours and trea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of cancer 2021-09, Vol.125 (6), p.780-788
Main Authors: Davidson, Brad A., Croessmann, Sarah, Park, Ben H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/208/68
631/67/1347
Biomarkers, Tumor - genetics
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Biopsy
Breast cancer
Breast Neoplasms - genetics
Breast Neoplasms - pathology
Cancer Research
Circulating Tumor DNA - genetics
Clinical trials
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Drug Resistance
Epidemiology
Female
Genomics
Humans
Liquid Biopsy
Metastases
Molecular Medicine
Mutation
Neoplasm Metastasis
Oncology
Patients
Peripheral blood
Precision Medicine
Review
Review Article
Tumors
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Summary:Advances in genomic strategies and the development of targeted therapies have enabled precision medicine to revolutionise the field of oncology. Precision medicine uses patient-specific genetic and molecular information, traditionally obtained from tumour biopsy samples, to classify tumours and treat them accordingly. However, biopsy samples often fail to provide complete tumour profiling, and the technique is expensive and, of course, relatively invasive. Advances in genomic techniques have led to improvements in the isolation and detection of circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), a component of a peripheral blood draw/liquid biopsy. Liquid biopsy offers a minimally invasive method to gather genetic information that is representative of a global snapshot of both primary and metastatic sites and can thereby provide invaluable information for potential targeted therapies and methods for tumour surveillance. However, a lack of prospective clinical trials showing direct patient benefit has limited the implementation of liquid biopsies in standard clinical applications. Here, we review the potential of ctDNA obtained by liquid biopsy to revolutionise personalised medicine and discuss current applications of ctDNA both at the benchtop and bedside.
ISSN:0007-0920
1532-1827
1532-1827
DOI:10.1038/s41416-021-01422-w