Predictive and Prognostic Value of Liquid Biopsy Biomarkers in Metastatic Cancers: from Basic Science, across High Throughput Profiling up to Clinical Practice

Our increased understanding and characterization of the molecular hallmarks of metastasis drastically changed the management of metastatic disease. However, metastasis remains the main cause of cancer morbidity and mortality, and new biomarkers to further develop personalized care are highly needed.

Tumor biomarkers constitute a great example of the synergic action between basic science, which identify the biomarkers, translational research, which characterizes them, and final clinical application.

Since multiple and repeated tissue biopsies are not feasible in clinical practice and metastasis biopsies are limited to very few sampling from accessible sites, liquid biopsy is of particular interest as a non-invasive and easily accessible alternative to assess the tumor mutational status. Moreover, it is a source of biomarkers throughout the long-term treatment. Among the liquid biopsy components, an extremely rare population of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), might contain tumorigenic cell clones with high relevance for metastatic progression. They are likely released from spatially distant metastatic sites and may provide a more comprehensive genomic picture than a single-site tumor biopsy. For this reasons, they represent a valuable tool to uncover potential therapeutic options. Other promising liquid biopsy analytes having potential predictive value for metastatic diseases are circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) present in the plasma, different species of circulating RNAs, and extracellular vesicles.

This Research Topic aims to spotlight metastatic disease research that may improve our knowledge in the field of biomarkers with the ultimate goal to develop personalized therapeutics for advanced cancer patients, refractory to conventional treatment modalities.

We encourage submissions focused on, but not limited to:
- new insights into the current status and future perspectives of the role of liquid biopsies in metastatic cancer
- new liquid biopsy analytes with prognostic and/or predictive potential in metastatic progression
- investigation of the values of biomarkers studies on preclinical mouse models or alternative models, such as organoids.
- high-throughput approaches, which may help systematically biomarkers screenings

Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.