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Updated: Jun 14, 2025
Exosomal miRNA Analysis in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer NSCLC Patients' Plasma Through qPCR: A Feasible Liquid Biopsy Tool
Published on: May 27, 2016
Cell-free and extrachromosomal DNA profiling of small cell lung cancer
Roya Behrouzi1, Alexandra Clipson2, Kathryn L Simpson3
1Department of Medical Oncology, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK; Faculty of Biology, Medicine, and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Abstract:
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is highly aggressive with poor prognosis. Despite a relative prevalence of circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) in SCLC, liquid biopsies are not currently implemented, unlike non-SCLC where cell-free DNA (cfDNA) mutation profiling in the blood has utility for guiding targeted therapies and assessing minimal residual disease. cfDNA methylation profiling is highly sensitive for SCLC detection and holds promise for disease monitoring and molecular subtyping; cfDNA fragmentation profiling has also demonstrated clinical potential. Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA), that is often observed in SCLC, promotes tumour heterogeneity and chemotherapy resistance and can be detected in blood. We discuss how these cfDNA profiling modalities can be harnessed to expand the clinical applications of liquid biopsy in SCLC.
