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Gawel et al. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2022;8:26 Journal of Cancer
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2022.13
Metastasis and Treatment

Review Open Access

Current and future opportunities for liquid biopsy of
circulating biomarkers to aid in early cancer

detection

Susan H. Gawel, Laurel Jackson, Nicolette Jeanblanc, Gerard J. Davis
Abbott Diagnostics Division, Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL 60064, USA.
Correspondence to: Gerard J. Davis, Ph.D, Abbott Diagnostics Division, Abbott Laboratories, 100 Abbott Park Road, D09GP,
AP20/1, Abbott Park, IL 60064, USA. E-mail: gerard.davis@abbott.com

How to cite this article: Gawel SH, Jackson L, Jeanblanc N, Davis GJ. Current and future opportunities for liquid biopsy of
circulating biomarkers to aid in early cancer detection. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2022;8:26. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-
4722.2022.13

Received: 2 Jan 2022 First Decision: 7 May 2022 Revised: 20 May 2022 Accepted: 16 Jun 2022 Published: 29 Jun 2022

Academic Editor: Lucio Miele Copy Editor: Fangling Lan Production Editor: Fangling Lan

Abstract
Early diagnosis of cancer can significantly improve treatment and survival outcomes. Imaging and tissue biopsy are
the gold standard diagnostic approaches but are costly, invasive, and often unable to detect early-stage tumors.
The past decade has marked an acceleration in the discovery and development of liquid biopsy tests for aiding in
the detection of various types of tumor markers in non-tissue samples, such as blood. Liquid biopsy markers
include circulating tumor cells, as well as tumor cell fragments, nucleic acids, and proteins. Liquid biopsy may be
useful in screening patients considered to be at high risk of developing cancer, for refining diagnosis when
combined with other test results, and for early detection of recurrence. Advances in big data analytics, informatics,
and artificial intelligence will make it possible to combine patient history, clinical data, and liquid biopsy marker
profiles to achieve more accurate and earlier diagnosis. In this review, we summarize the current use of liquid
biopsy in cancer care, including the development of multi-analyte panels to improve diagnostic accuracy and detect
several cancer types in a single assay. We highlight recent advances for potential future applications of liquid
biopsy to aid in the diagnosis of early-stage lung cancer. We also discuss the opportunities and challenges of
integrating liquid biopsy into current algorithms for cancer screening and diagnosis.

Keywords: Cancer early detection, diagnostic algorithm, biomarkers, blood, serum, analyte

© The Author(s) 2022. 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
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

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