Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Oct 29;13(21):5429.
doi: 10.3390/cancers13215429.

Liquid Biopsy and Primary Brain Tumors

Robert H Eibl  1 , Markus Schneemann  2
Affiliations
Review

Liquid Biopsy and Primary Brain Tumors

Robert H Eibl et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Two decades of "promising results" in liquid biopsy have led to both continuing disappointment and hope that the new era of minimally invasive, personalized analysis can be applied for better diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring, and therapy of cancer. Here, we briefly highlight the promises, developments, and challenges related to liquid biopsy of brain tumors, including circulating tumor cells, cell-free nucleic acids, extracellular vesicles, and miRNA; we further discuss the urgent need to establish suitable biomarkers and the right standards to improve modern clinical management of brain tumor patients with the use of liquid biopsy.

Keywords: biomarker; brain tumor; circulating tumor (ct)DNA; circulating tumor cell—CTC; extracellular vesicle; glioblastoma; glioma; liquid biopsy; medulloblastoma; microRNA—miR.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Liquid biopsy. Distant from the original brain tumor, samples from blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) can typically serve as a low-risk source of tumor-derived nucleic acids (RNA, DNA) for further analysis. CSF—cerebrospinal fluid; EV—extracellular vesicle; CTC—circulating tumor cell. Created/modified with https://smart.servier.com (accessed on 8 August 2021), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (accessed on 8 August 2021)).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Hypothetical biomarker during brain tumor development, therapy, and monitoring. A growing tumor causes elevated levels of a biomarker at time of diagnostic imaging; the levels drop significantly after surgical removal of the tumor and stay low during additional radio- and chemotherapy. Liquid biopsy allows minimally invasive, real-time monitoring in order to differentiate progression from pseudoprogression of the tumor.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Rorke L.B. Experimental Production of Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumors and Its Relevance to Human Neuro-Oncology. Am. J. Pathol. 1994;144:444–448. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yaşargil M.G., Krayenbühl H. The Use of the Binocular Microscope in Neurosurgery. Bibl. Ophthalmol. Suppl. Ad Ophthalmol. 1970;81:62–65. - PubMed
    1. Eibl R.H., Kleihues P., Jat P.S., Wiestler O.D. A Model for Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumors in Transgenic Neural Transplants Harboring the SV40 Large T Antigen. Am. J. Pathol. 1994;144:556–564. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wiestler O.D., Aguzzi A., Schneemann M., Eibl R., von Deimling A., Kleihues P. Oncogene Complementation in Fetal Brain Transplants. Cancer Res. 1992;52:3760–3767. - PubMed
    1. Wiestler O.D., Brüstle O., Eibl R.H., Radner H., Aguzzi A., Kleihues P. Retrovirus-Mediated Oncogene Transfer into Neural Transplants. Brain Pathol. Zur. Switz. 1992;2:47–59. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources