What is a liquid biopsy test procedure?

Question

Hello doctor,

My aunt has recently been suspected of having pancreatic cancer, and her doctors have scheduled her for a liquid biopsy. I am not familiar with this procedure and would like to understand more about it. Could you provide some insights into what a liquid biopsy entails, how it differs from other diagnostic tests, and what the next steps might be following the biopsy results? We are eager to learn more about her condition and how we can support her through this process. Kindly suggest.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I understand your concern.

An investigational exosome-based liquid biopsy accurately detected 97 % of stage 1 or 2 pancreatic cancers when combined with the biomarker CA 19-9. Currently, liquid biopsy in clinical practice aims to address the following three issues:

1. Achieving an early and accurate diagnosis of PC to provide patients with more treatment options.

2. Accurately assessing metastasis and recurrence risks before surgery to avoid unnecessary treatments; and

3. Selecting appropriate chemotherapy drugs and accurately evaluating treatment response for patients who are not eligible for surgical resection.

Steps in liquid biopsy involve:

Size-dependent isolation techniques include filtration, microfluidics, centrifugation, and inertial focusing.
Direct imaging – imaging-based detection methods use specific fluorescent tags to identify and count CTCs (circulating tumor cells) in blood. Each of these technologies is unique in its sample preparation, detection algorithms, and fluorophores.
Dielectrophoresis9 – which relies on particles with different polarization that move differently under a non-uniform electric field.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Thank you.