Liquid Biopsies: Handle With Care.
More recently, the meaning of the term liquid biopsy has been extended to the detection of tumor nuclear material in the blood. This has proved to be much more clinically attractive and generated unusually high interest in the scientific and business community.
With this in mind, liquid biopsies can be defined as ‘the analysis of blood and blood products to detect
and analyze cells or nuclear material derived from a tumor’.
However, the same principle of non-native deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) detection in blood can be applied for detection of fetal DNA in maternal blood for prenatal diagnosis of
genetic anomalies in the fetus. Proponents of these assays have also used the term ‘liquid biopsy’.
Moreover, similar assays can also be conducted in other bodily fluids like Cerebrospinal
fluid (CSF) and amniotic fluid. If these are brought into the fold, the definition broadens to ‘the
analysis of bodily fluids for the presence of cells and/or nuclear material for the detection of
pathological conditions’.
However, the same principle of non-native deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) detection in blood can be applied for detection of fetal DNA in maternal blood for prenatal diagnosis of genetic anomalies in the fetus.
Proponents of these assays have also used the term ‘liquid biopsy’. Moreover, similar assays can also be conducted in other bodily fluids like Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and amniotic fluid. If these are brought into the fold, the definition broadens to ‘the analysis of bodily fluids for the presence of cells and/or nuclear material for the detection of pathological conditions’.
Note that the analysis of the same bodily fluids for a wide variety of other chemicals – proteins, pathogens, ions, gases etc.
Pathol Lab Med Open J. 2016; 1(1): 3-6. doi: 10.17140/PLMOJ-1-102
