Liquid Biopsy: A Non-Invasive Technique Detecting Cancer through Blood
For several years, healthcare researchers have been working toward developing better ways to cure cancer or diagnose it in the early stage so that it can be curable.
Therefore, the healthcare sector demands tests that are simple to perform on cancer patients and require less time. One such procedure that has gained massive response in the last few years is “liquid biopsy.”
Continue reading to learn more and better understand liquid biopsy and its growing market.
Liquid Biopsy: The Emerging Cancer Treatment
A liquid biopsy refers to non-invasive procedures which allow healthcare experts to get information related to the tumor with the help of collected blood and cell samples.
Traces of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) cancer present in the blood give experts clues for choosing better cancer treatment options that would work best for the patients. Also, it allows for scanning of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which is present in around 10%-30% of cancer patients.
Liquid biopsies are primarily used to treat prostate, lung, and breast cancers.
Due to being non-invasive, liquid biopsy procedures need only five milliliters of human blood, making the procedures easier to tolerate for patients. Moreover, they can be performed in a short time compared to surgical biopsy.
Industry Overview of the Liquid Biopsy Market
Liquid biopsy is an integral part of decision-making in the healthcare sector to obtain data for a broad range of cancer treatment options. During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a constant decrease in the demand for liquid biopsy. The decrease was mainly attributed to the shutdown of several research institutions and laboratories because of government restrictions and protocols.
Such government restrictions lowered the demand for services related to liquid biopsy and resulted in several shipping and production-related issues.
However, currently, the global liquid biopsy market is growing massively. According to the BIS Research report, the global liquid biopsy market is supposed to grow from a market value of $2,508.2 million in 2021 to $19,066.0 million by 2032, at a growth rate of 19.38% during the forecasted period 2022–2032.
Key factors pushing the growth of the market are:
· Increasing adoption rate of next-generation sequencing (NGS)
· Growing advancements in next-generation sequencing (NGS)
· Rising adoption and awareness of personalized medicine
Working of Liquid Biopsy
Cancer tumors release several biomolecules in the blood, which can be diagnosed through a blood test.
Generally, during the liquid biopsy procedures, the two key components which are mainly targeted are intact circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA).
Following is the data to be analyzed during the liquid biopsy:
· Ribonucleic acid (RNA) and protein expression
· Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)and chromosomal abnormalities
· Amplification, translocations, and deletions of cancer cells
· Point mutations
Doctors and experts later use these analyzed data to understand patients’ cancer and allow doctors to monitor the patient’s treatment to know the possible chances of cancer returning to the patient.
Liquid Biopsy Applications
The genetic data provided by the biomolecule’s tumor offer great insight into the patient’s cancer, and the same can be used in:
· Disease prognosis
· Determining suitable cancer treatments
· Monitoring the patient’s cancer response to treatments
· Looking for cancer return chances post-treatment
Techniques of Liquid Biopsy
The healthcare sector currently uses two techniques of liquid biopsy:
· Cell-Free DNA: This type of liquid biopsy is called ctDNA and is mainly used to study the DNA in the tumor found in the patient’s blood.
· Circulating tumor cell technique: Also known as the CTC test, it is mainly used for scanning and studying the tumor cells present in the blood of the patients. These tumor cells act as a metastasis agent and can lead to the high growth of several tumors in the infected area of the human body.
Future of Liquid Biopsy
Much of the liquid biopsy research is dedicated to creating simple tests that would allow experts to diagnose cancer at a much earlier stage.
For instance, the healthcare sector requires a better method of separating and identifying tumor DNA from different DNA fragments present in the blood.
By acquiring the right way to do the same, healthcare experts can get the option of examining the exact origin of the cancer tumors.
Conclusion
Liquid biopsy is one such technique that can be used to treat different issues. It involves isolating and identifying the other tumor cells and exosomes and gathering several pieces of information about the patient’s cancers.
With advanced technologies, liquid biopsy is currently being used in broader applications, such as predicting, diagnosing, prognosing, and monitoring cancer treatments.
