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Circulating tumor DNA-based predictive biomarkers in breast cancer clinical trials: a narrative review

Breast carcinoma is the most frequent and the second leading cause of cancer mortality in women worldwide. Current treatment decisions are based on tumor profiling of the initial tissue biopsy. Cancer though evolves both spatially and temporarily in a significant percentage of patients during treatm...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Fiste, Oraianthi, Liontos, Michael, Koutsoukos, Konstantinos, Terpos, Evangelos, Dimopoulos, Meletios A., Zagouri, Flora
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: AME Publishing Company 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7791253/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33437802
http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/atm-20-1175
Descripción
Sumario:Breast carcinoma is the most frequent and the second leading cause of cancer mortality in women worldwide. Current treatment decisions are based on tumor profiling of the initial tissue biopsy. Cancer though evolves both spatially and temporarily in a significant percentage of patients during treatment. However, sequential biopsies from the primary tumor or its metastatic sites are not either convenient or feasible in the majority of cases. In the era of precision medicine, analysis of circulating blood-based biomarkers in the field of liquid biopsies provides an insight into the dynamic molecular profiling of the primary tumor and its metastases, in a relatively non-invasive way. The latter permits not only patient stratification but also longitudinal evaluation of treatment response, when incorporated into clinical trials. This review summarizes the results from recent and ongoing circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA)-based biomarker-driven clinical trials, with respect to ctDNA analysis’ predictive role, both in adjuvant, neo-adjuvant, and metastatic setting. Furthermore, current challenges in ctDNA analysis applications are critically discussed, including pre-analytical and analytical issues, and future perspectives in this field, through the conduct of well-designed, multicenter, randomized, large-scale, biomarker-stratified trials, with robust statistical methods. Despite in its infancy, ctDNA analysis holds great promise as a minimally invasive tool regarding tailored, personalized treatment guidance for breast cancer patients.