New horizon for breast cancer biomarker discoveries: What might the liquid biopsy of nipple aspirate fluid hold?
Ferdinando MannelloPublished in: Proteomics. Clinical applications (2017)
The existence of cellular, molecular and biochemical heterogeneity of human breast cancers reveals the intricacy of biomarkers complexity, stimulating studies on new approaches (like "liquid biopsies") for the improvements in precision medicine. Breast cancer is recognized as a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide with tumors significantly diverse and containing many types of cells showing different genetic and epigenetic profiles. In this field, the technology of liquid biopsy (applied to a fluid produced by breast gland, named nipple aspirate fluids, NAF) highlights the power of combining basic and clinical research. NAF is the mirror of the entire ductal/alveolar breast tree providing almost complete proteomic profile and a valuable source for biomarker discovery, in non-invasive manner than tissue biopsies. The liquid biopsy technology using NAF may represent the outstanding breakthrough of proteomic cancer research revealing novel diagnostic and prognostic applications. In conjunction to metabolomic and degradome profiling, the use of NAF as liquid biopsy approach will improve the detection of changes in the cellular microenvironment of the breast tumors, understanding molecular and biochemical mechanisms which drive breast tumor initiation, maintenance and progression, and finally enhancing the development of novel drug targets and new treatment strategies.
Keyphrases
- pet ct
- ultrasound guided
- ionic liquid
- fine needle aspiration
- endothelial cells
- small molecule
- dna methylation
- gene expression
- single cell
- emergency department
- label free
- squamous cell carcinoma
- single molecule
- cell cycle arrest
- genome wide
- signaling pathway
- childhood cancer
- copy number
- squamous cell
- drug induced
- breast reconstruction
- real time pcr