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Abstract Details
Liquid biopsy in the clinical management of hepatocellular carcinoma
Gut. 2020 Sep 3;gutjnl-2019-320282. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2019-320282.Online ahead of print.
Johann von Felden#1, Teresa Garcia-Lezana2, Kornelius Schulze3, Bojan Losic4, Augusto Villanueva#56
Author information
1Department of Internal Medicine, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany j.von-felden@uke.de augusto.villanueva@mssm.edu.
2Liver Cancer Program, Division of Liver Diseases, Department of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Tisch Cancer Institute, New York, New York, USA.
3Department of Internal Medicine, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
4Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
5Liver Cancer Program, Division of Liver Diseases, Department of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Tisch Cancer Institute, New York, New York, USA j.von-felden@uke.de augusto.villanueva@mssm.edu.
6Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States.
#Contributed equally.
Abstract
With increasing knowledge on molecular tumour information, precision oncology has revolutionised the medical field over the past years. Liquid biopsy entails the analysis of circulating tumour components, such as circulating tumour DNA, tumour cells or tumour-derived extracellular vesicles, and has thus come as a handy tool for personalised medicine in many cancer entities. Clinical applications under investigation include early cancer detection, prediction of treatment response and molecular monitoring of the disease, for example, to comprehend resistance patterns and clonal tumour evolution. In fact, several tests for blood-based mutation profiling are already commercially available and have entered the clinical field.In the context of hepatocellular carcinoma, where access to tissue specimens remains mostly limited to patients with early stage tumours, liquid biopsy approaches might be particularly helpful. A variety of translational liquid biopsy studies have been carried out to address clinical needs, such as early hepatocellular carcinoma detection and prediction of treatment response. To this regard, methylation profiling of circulating tumour DNA has evolved as a promising surveillance tool for early hepatocellular carcinoma detection in populations at risk, which might soon transform the way surveillance programmes are implemented. This review summarises recent developments in the liquid biopsy oncological space and, in more detail, the potential implications in the clinical management of hepatocellular carcinoma. It further outlines technical peculiarities across liquid biopsy technologies, which might be helpful for interpretation by non-experts.