Liquid biopsy in genitourinary oncology: Current clinical applications and future prospects across prostate, bladder, and renal cancers
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Liquid biopsy has emerged as a transformative approach in oncology, providing minimally invasive access to tumor‐derived biomarkers with applications across diagnosis, prognosis, therapeutic guidance, and disease monitoring. This literature review synthesizes evidence from 125 studies evaluating circulating tumor DNA, circulating tumor cells, extracellular vesicles, RNA species, and proteomic or metabolomic signatures in prostate, bladder, and renal cancers. The findings demonstrate that liquid biopsy technologies have shown substantial promise in early detection, risk stratification, and longitudinal surveillance, while also offering novel insights into therapeutic resistance and clonal evolution. However, clinical translation remains constrained by pre‐analytical variability, assay standardization challenges, limited sensitivity in low‐tumor‐burden settings, and the need for prospective validation in large, diverse populations. Despite these barriers, ongoing technological advances and integration with multi‐omics approaches are likely to accelerate the adoption of liquid biopsy as a complement to conventional tissue‐based diagnostics and imaging in genitourinary oncology.
Source: UroPrecision
DOI: 10.1002/uro2.70045
Author: Kirolos Eskandar
Institution: Helwan University
Language: English
Subfield: Cancer Research
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7116776582