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Zhang. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2021;7:22 Journal of Cancer
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2021.82
Metastasis and Treatment

Editorial Open Access

Advances in cancer early diagnosis with liquid
biopsy-based approaches

Wei Zhang 1,2
1
Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.
2
The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60611,
USA.
Correspondence to: Dr. Wei Zhang, Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine,
680 N. Lake Shore Dr., Suite 1400, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. E-mail: wei.zhang1@northwestern.edu
How to cite this article: Zhang W. Advances in cancer early diagnosis with liquid biopsy-based approaches. J Cancer Metastasis
Treat 2021;7:22. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2021.82

Received: 31 Mar 2021 Accepted: 7 Apr 2021 Published: 23 Apr 2021
Academic Editor: Lucio Miele Copy Editor: Xi-Jun Chen Production Editor: Xi-Jun Chen

Significant progress in cancer diagnosis and treatment has contributed to improved clinical outcomes for
many cancers. However, cancer remains a major world-wide health problem with an estimated 19.3 million
new cases and almost 10.0 million cancer deaths in 2020 . Early detection of malignant tumors that are still
[1]
treatable (e.g., surgical removal) is key to lowering cancer-related mortality and improving patient survival.
Compared to tissue-based cancer diagnosis approaches that may be limited by the issue of tumor
heterogeneity, accessibility to a tumor, and possible complications associated with the biopsy procedure,
approaches targeting liquid biopsies such as blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, saliva, and sweat have been
demonstrated for their clinical potential as a noninvasive or minimally-invasive alternative. Specifically,
tumor-derived mutational, epigenetic, and transcriptomic features are contained in liquid biopsies collected
from a patient, providing the basis for developing effective diagnostic biomarkers from these specimens. Of
note, during the past few years, exciting technical advances have emerged to allow profiling various
molecular targets in a variety of clinical specimens. In this special issue of “Liquid Biopsies in Cancer Early
Diagnosis”, six reviews and original articles showcased the current advances in this fast-developing field of
research.

The four reviews in this special issue provided timely summaries of related research from a perspective of an
individual cancer or cancers in general. D’Amico et al. reviewed clinical evidence for the utility of liquid
[2]
biopsy in detecting early breast cancer. They argued that combining molecular information from liquid

© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
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