Liquid Biopsy: Past, Present, and Future.
7 affiliations
- 1Department of Urology The Second Xiangya Hospital at Central South University Changsha Hunan China.
- 2Xiangya School of Medicine Central South University Changsha Hunan China.
- 3Department of Urology Xiangya Hospital Central South University Changsha Hunan China.
- 4Washington University School of Medicine St Louis Missouri USA.
- 5Guangdong Medical University Dongguan Guangdong China.
- 6Department of Nephrology Xiangya Hospital at Central South University Changsha Hunan China.
- 7National Clinical Research Center for Metabolic Disease Key Laboratory of Diabetes Immunology (Central South University) Ministry of Education Changsha Hunan China.
Abstract
Liquid biopsy has evolved over two decades from an extension of tissue genotyping into a minimally invasive approach for repeat and longitudinal molecular assessment across the cancer continuum. Advances in sequencing, digital PCR, error suppression, and computational analytics have expanded analytes beyond circulating tumor DNA and circulating tumor cells to extracellular vesicles, circulating RNAs, and tumor-educated platelets, while broadening readouts from mutations to methylation, fragmentomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and multiomic integration. This review traces the field from its technological foundations to current applications in early detection and multicancer early detection, therapy selection and resistance monitoring, minimal residual disease, recurrence-risk stratification, and longitudinal response assessment across major cancers and selected nononcologic settings. We distinguish clinically established applications from emerging and exploratory strategies and emphasize that high analytical performance does not by itself establish clinical utility. We further discuss preanalytical handling, standardization, biological confounders, and evidence required for implementation. Future progress will depend on use-case-driven development, prospective utility studies, longitudinal and multimodal interpretation, and integration with established diagnostic pathways. Together, these priorities define a transition from molecular detectability toward reproducible, actionable, and clinically meaningful liquid biopsy.
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BibTeX
@article{liu2026liquid,
title = {{Liquid Biopsy: Past, Present, and Future.}},
author = {Jiachen Liu and Dianjie Zeng and Keran Zhao and Yuxi Wang and Huijie Hu and Fei Deng and Yinhuai Wang and Liya Sun and Liangmin Fu},
journal = {MedComm},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1002/mco2.71085},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42948564},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Liquid Biopsy: Past, Present, and Future.
AU - Jiachen Liu
AU - Dianjie Zeng
AU - Keran Zhao
AU - Yuxi Wang
AU - Huijie Hu
AU - Fei Deng
AU - Yinhuai Wang
AU - Liya Sun
AU - Liangmin Fu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/27
JO - MedComm
DO - 10.1002/mco2.71085
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42948564
AB - Liquid biopsy has evolved over two decades from an extension of tissue genotyping into a minimally invasive approach for repeat and longitudinal molecular assessment across the cancer continuum. Advances in sequencing, digital PCR, error suppression, and computational analytics have expanded analytes beyond circulating tumor DNA and circulating tumor cells to extracellular vesicles, circulating RNAs, and tumor-educated platelets, while broadening readouts from mutations to methylation, fragmentomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and multiomic integration. This review traces the field from its technological foundations to current applications in early detection and multicancer early detection, therapy selection and resistance monitoring, minimal residual disease, recurrence-risk stratification, and longitudinal response assessment across major cancers and selected nononcologic settings. We distinguish clinically established applications from emerging and exploratory strategies and emphasize that high analytical performance does not by itself establish clinical utility. We further discuss preanalytical handling, standardization, biological confounders, and evidence required for implementation. Future progress will depend on use-case-driven development, prospective utility studies, longitudinal and multimodal interpretation, and integration with established diagnostic pathways. Together, these priorities define a transition from molecular detectability toward reproducible, actionable, and clinically meaningful liquid biopsy.
SN - 2688-2663
ER -