Advances of liquid biopsy in precision treatment of breast cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor in women worldwide. Recently, the complexity of malignant tumors has been revealed following the rapid expansion of the knowledge system of genomics, and the treatment of tumors has shifted from tumor type-oriented therapy to gene-oriented therapy, which is based on biomarker analysis. Great efforts have proved that tumor molecular profiles from patients are capable to improve the selection of personalized treatment options, as well as monitoring of treatment response, drug resistance and tumor recurrence. Liquid biopsy, a method to analyze the genome and other data contained in tumor-derived materials in body fluids, can obtain detailed information about the characteristics of individual patient's tumors, providing new ideas for precision treatment. In the precise treatment of breast cancer, liquid biopsy can predict survival prognosis, detect minimal residual disease (MRD), monitor treatment efficacy, and play a role in (neo)adjuvant treatment and rescue treatment. Although the research of liquid biopsy in the precise treatment of breast cancer has made remarkable progress, there are still some problems, and more work is needed to further improve the technology. In this paper, we reviewed the research progress of liquid biopsy in the precision therapy of breast cancer in recent years, and the future trend of liquid biopsy is forecasted.

Keywords

• |breast cancer|precision therapy|liquid biopsy|circulating tumor cell|ctdna