Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Serum alpha-fetoprotein and radiologic imaging are the most commonly used tests for early diagnosis and dynamic monitoring of treatment response in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the accuracy of these tests is limited, and they may not reflect the underlying biology of the tumor. Thus, developing highly accurate novel HCC biomarkers reflecting tumor biology is a clinically unmet need. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have long been proposed as a noninvasive biomarker in clinical oncology. Most CTC assays utilize immunoaffinity-based, size-based, and/or enrichment-free mechanisms followed by immunocytochemical staining to characterize CTCs. The prognostic value of HCC CTC enumeration has been extensively validated. Subsets of CTCs expressing mesenchymal markers are also reported to have clinical significance. In addition, researchers have been devoting their efforts to molecular characterizations of CTCs (e.g. genetics and transcriptomics) as molecular profiling can offer a more accurate readout and provide biological insights. As new molecular profiling techniques, such as digital polymerase chain reaction, are developed to detect minimal amounts of DNA/RNA, several research groups have established HCC CTC digital scoring systems to quantify clinically relevant gene panels. Given the versatility of CTCs to provide intact molecular and functional data that reflects the underlying tumor, CTCs have great potential as a noninvasive biomarker in HCC. Large-scale, prospective studies for HCC CTCs with a standardized protocol are necessary for successful clinical translation.
DOI: 10.1111/jgh.15886
Authors: Pai‐Chi Teng, Vatche G Agopian, Ting‐Yi Lin, Sungyong You, Yazhen Zhu, Hsian‐Rong Tseng, Ju Dong Yang
Institutions: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Taipei Municipal YangMing Hospital, Taipei City Hospital, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Academia Sinica
Language: English
Subfield: Cancer Research
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: A blood test to identify prostate cancer patients at risk for visceral metastasis, G2061683339, Non-Invasive Prenatal Diagnostics Based on Circulating Trophoblasts, Biomimetic NanoVilli Chips for Extracellular Vesicles in Hepatocellular Carcinoma, G6900077596, Determinants of Liver Metastasis, Click Chemistry-Mediated Microfluidic Sorting for HCC CTCs, Covalent Chemistry on Nanosubstrates Enables Molecular Analysis of Purified Extracellular Vesicles in Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Integrated analysis of HCC CTCs for Liver Transplant Candidate Selection, G9000154689, Extracellular Vesicle-Based Digital Scoring Assay for Detecting Early-stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma
OpenAlex ID: W4280535935