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Su et al. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2020;6:19 Journal of Cancer
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2020.48 Metastasis and Treatment

Review Open Access

Magnetic nanotechnologies for early cancer
diagnostics with liquid biopsies: a review

Diqing Su , Kai Wu , Renata Saha , Jinming Liu , Jian-Ping Wang 2
2
1
2
2
1 Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
2 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Correspondence to: Prof. Jianping Wang, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, 200
Union St SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. E-mail: jpwang@umn.edu
How to cite this article: Su D, Wu K, Saha R, Liu J, Wang JP. Magnetic nanotechnologies for early cancer diagnostics with liquid
biopsies: a review. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2020;6:19. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2020.48
Received: 19 May 2020 First Decision: 20 May 2020 Revised: 11 Jun 2020 Accepted: 17 Jun 2020 Published: 10 Jul 2020

Academic Editor: Wei Zhang Copy Editor: Cai-Hong Wang Production Editor: Jing Yu

Abstract
Liquid biopsy has become an emerging technology in the detection of cancer related biomarkers as well as the
continuous monitoring of cancer treatment. There has been extensive research on the applications of magnetic
nanotechnologies in liquid biopsies from the separation of target analytes to the detection of cancer biomarkers.
Magnetic separation plays an important role in increasing both the efficiency and sensitivity of the liquid biopsy
process. The detection of cancer biomarkers through magnetic nanosensors also possesses many advantages
such as low background noise, high sensitivity, short assay time, and the ability to detect multiple biomarkers at
the same time. This review focuses on the recent advances of magnetic nanotechnologies in liquid biopsies for
cancer detection and its future potential in comparison with other technologies.

Keywords: Liquid biopsy, magnetic, cancer, nanotechnology, biosensor

INTRODUCTION
Liquid biopsy is a new diagnostic concept that has received much attention in the past few years. It was
originally defined as “the test on the blood sample of the patient to study the circulating tumor cells or
cell free DNA derived from the tumor cells in the blood” by the National Cancer Institute . Compared to
[1]
the conventional invasive biopsy that contains cells or tissues from lesion, liquid biopsy is a noninvasive
technique whose target analytes include circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA)

© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
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