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Background: Gastrointestinal tumors are among the most common cancer types, and early detection is paramount to improve their management. Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) liquid biopsy raises significant hopes for non-invasive early detection.
Aim: To describe current applications of this technology for gastrointestinal cancer detection and screening.
Methods: A systematic review of the literature was performed across the PubMed database. Articles reporting the use of cfDNA liquid biopsy in the screening or diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancers were included in the analysis.
Results: A total of 263 articles were screened for eligibility, of which 13 articles were included. Studies investigated colorectal cancer (5 studies), pancreatic cancer (2 studies), hepatocellular carcinoma (3 studies), and multi-cancer detection (3 studies), including gastric, oesophageal, or bile duct cancer, representing a total of 4824 patients. Test sensitivities ranged from 71% to 100%, and specificities ranged from 67.4% to 100%. Pre-cancerous lesions detection was less performant with a sensitivity of 16.9% and a 100% specificity in one study. Another study using a large biobank demonstrated a 94.9% sensitivity in detecting cancer up to 4 years before clinical symptoms, with a 61% accuracy in tissue-of-origin identification.
Conclusion: cfDNA liquid biopsy seems capable of detecting gastrointestinal cancers at an early stage of development in a non-invasive and repeatable manner and screening simultaneously for multiple cancer types in a single blood sample. Further trials in clinically relevant settings are required to determine the exact place of this technology in gastrointestinal cancer screening and diagnosis strategies.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.4251/wjgo.v13.i11.1799 | DOI Listing |
Nanoscale Horiz
September 2025
Institute of Molecular Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory for Nucleic Acid Chemistry and Nanomedicine, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200127, China.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as valuable sources for liquid biopsy in disease diagnostics, given their protein and nucleic acid cargoes (, miRNA, mRNA, glycoRNA) can serve as critical biomarkers. DNA nanotechnology, leveraging its inherent programmability, high specificity, and powerful signal amplification capability, offers a transformative approach for the bioanalysis of EVs. This review summarizes recent advances in DNA nanotechnology-based analytical methodologies for detecting EV-associated proteins and nucleic acids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMed
September 2025
Department of General Surgery, The First Hospital of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730030, China; Gansu Province Key Laboratory of Biological Therapy and Regenerative Medicine Transformation, Lanzhou, Gansu 730030, China. Electronic address:
Background: Early diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) remains challenging, but liquid biopsy is emerging as a promising detection strategy. Here, we identified a novel bile biomarker for CCA and developed an optic fiber biosensor integrated with digestive endoscopy for real-time diagnosis in vivo.
Methods: A total of 583 subjects and two proteomic analyses were used to screen and validate biomarkers for CCA, and then the corresponding antibodies were generated to construct a surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based optic fiber biosensor.
J Natl Cancer Inst
September 2025
Associate Director Laboratory for Molecular Pediatric Pathology (LaMPP), Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 02115, MA, USA.
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has transformed cancer care by providing essential insights for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. However, variability in testing timing, reporting practices, and interpretation challenges limits its clinical impact. This manuscript highlights key opportunities to optimize somatic reporting, emphasizing the importance of timely testing throughout the cancer care continuum to maximize the diagnostic and therapeutic relevance of findings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Clin Oncol
September 2025
Servicio de Oncología Médica HM CIOCC, Hospital Universitario HM Sanchinarro, Facultad HM de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad Camilo José Cela, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria HM Hospitales, Madrid, Spain.
Objectives: To evaluate the association between the KRAS mutational load and the histologic tumor response in patients with resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) who received neoadjuvant treatment (NAC) with pegylated liposomal irinotecan in combination with oxaliplatin, 5-fluorouracil, and leucovorin (NALIRIFOX).
Methods: This was a multicenter, single-arm, interventional, open-label, phase 2 trial in patients 18 years or older who had histologically or cytologically confirmed PDAC and were candidates for surgery and received neoadjuvant NALIRIFOX. The primary outcome was determination of the association between the KRAS mutational load and the histologic tumor response after chemotherapy.
Biochem Biophys Rep
December 2025
Division of Breast Surgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, 112, Taiwan.
Purpose: This study aimed to conduct functional proteomics across breast cancer subtypes with bioinformatics analyses.
Methods: Candidate proteins were identified using nanoscale liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (NanoLC-MS/MS) from core needle biopsy samples of early stage (0-III) breast cancers, followed by external validation with public domain gene-expression datasets (TCGA TARGET GTEx and TCGA BRCA).
Results: Seventeen proteins demonstrated significantly differential expression and protein-protein interaction (PPI) found the strong networks including COL2A1, COL11A1, COL6A1, COL6A2, THBS1 and LUM.