1. Liver-derived cell-free nucleic acids in plasma: Biology and applications in liquid biopsies
- Author
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K.C. Allen Chan, Peiyong Jiang, and Y.M. Dennis Lo
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ,Cancer detection ,Biology ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,0302 clinical medicine ,Pregnancy ,Biomarkers, Tumor ,medicine ,Humans ,Liquid biopsy ,Chromosome Aberrations ,Hepatology ,Liver Neoplasms ,Liquid Biopsy ,Methylation ,DNA Methylation ,Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ,medicine.disease ,Cell-Free Nucleic Acids ,030104 developmental biology ,Liver ,chemistry ,Hepatocellular carcinoma ,Cancer research ,Nucleic acid ,DNA fragmentation ,Female ,030211 gastroenterology & hepatology ,DNA - Abstract
There is much global research interest surrounding the use of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) for liquid biopsies. cfDNA-based non-invasive prenatal testing for foetal chromosomal aneuploidies was the first successful application of cfDNA technology that transformed clinical practice - it has since been rapidly adopted in dozens of countries and is used by millions of pregnant women every year. Prompted by such developments, efforts to use cfDNA in other fields, especially for cancer detection and monitoring have been actively pursued in recent years. Cancer-associated aberrations including single nucleotide mutations, copy number aberrations, aberrations in methylation and alterations in DNA fragmentation patterns have been detected in the cfDNA of patients suffering from a wide variety of cancers. In addition, the analysis of methylation and fragmentomic patterns has enabled the tissue origin of cfDNA to be determined. In this review, different approaches for detecting circulating liver-derived nucleic acids and cancer-associated aberrations, as well as their potential clinical applications for the detection, monitoring and management of hepatocellular carcinoma, will be discussed.
- Published
- 2019