The invasive nature of surgical biopsies most often prevents their sequential application to monitor disease. Single biopsies also fail to reflect intratumor heterogeneity, cancer dynamics and drug sensitivities that most likely change during clonal evolution and under the selective pressure of therapy. Peripheral blood has several components that have been assessed for tumor-derived nucleic acid content. Characterization of cell-free nucleic acid species in peripheral blood and circulating and disseminated tumor cells in blood and bone marrow samples can serve as minimally invasive liquid biopsy approaches. Liquid biopsy components have a wide range of attractive clinical applications, including prognostication at diagnosis, treatment response assessment, early metastasis detection and targeted drug selection for a personalized treatment plan. Longitudinal patient monitoring using liquid biopsies likely presents the best strategy for patient care, being easily adaptable to personalize care and providing an early and global assessment of disease, even when disseminated in a patient.
Liquid biopsy research addresses the three central monitoring areas essential for optimal personalized treatment of children with cancer: (1) therapy response assessment, (2) minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring and (3) actionable target identification. The primary goal is to accelerate transfer of liquid biopsy approaches into the clinic within these three monitoring areas to make clinical phenotypes of residual, resistant and metastatic disease predictable. We hypothesize that implementing state-of-the-art molecular characterization techniques for the analysis of plasma-based cell-free nucleic acids, proteins and metabolites as well as the characterization of circulating tumor cells in blood and disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow will improve outcome prediction, patient monitoring and secondary treatment selection. Liquid biopsies are likely to minimize the need for surgical biopsies and could better reflect tumor dynamics, intratumor heterogeneity and drug sensitivities over time, and greatly contribute to personalized treatment.
Liquid biopsy applications for pediatric oncology are lagging behind adult oncology. Studies so far have mostly been retrospective proof-of-concept studies in small cohorts. Nevertheless, these proof-of-concept studies illustrate the technology’s substantial potential. We expect the clinical impact of diagnostics utilizing liquid biopsies to become clear for pediatric oncology in the coming decade.
This Research Topic aims to present original research focusing on molecular characterization of tumor surrogates in liquid biopsies from children and adolescents with cancer (cell-free DNA; microRNAs, long noncoding RNAs, circular RNAs, extracellular vesicles, blood-borne circulating tumor cells and disseminated tumor cells from bone marrow). Likewise, conclusions drawn from prospective studies investigating liquid biopsy-based diagnostics or markers accompanying clinical trials are eligible, as are review articles reflecting how liquid biopsy based-approaches are expected to improve outcome prediction, patient monitoring and treatment selection for children and adolescents with cancer.
Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in of Frontiers in Oncology.
The invasive nature of surgical biopsies most often prevents their sequential application to monitor disease. Single biopsies also fail to reflect intratumor heterogeneity, cancer dynamics and drug sensitivities that most likely change during clonal evolution and under the selective pressure of therapy. Peripheral blood has several components that have been assessed for tumor-derived nucleic acid content. Characterization of cell-free nucleic acid species in peripheral blood and circulating and disseminated tumor cells in blood and bone marrow samples can serve as minimally invasive liquid biopsy approaches. Liquid biopsy components have a wide range of attractive clinical applications, including prognostication at diagnosis, treatment response assessment, early metastasis detection and targeted drug selection for a personalized treatment plan. Longitudinal patient monitoring using liquid biopsies likely presents the best strategy for patient care, being easily adaptable to personalize care and providing an early and global assessment of disease, even when disseminated in a patient.
Liquid biopsy research addresses the three central monitoring areas essential for optimal personalized treatment of children with cancer: (1) therapy response assessment, (2) minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring and (3) actionable target identification. The primary goal is to accelerate transfer of liquid biopsy approaches into the clinic within these three monitoring areas to make clinical phenotypes of residual, resistant and metastatic disease predictable. We hypothesize that implementing state-of-the-art molecular characterization techniques for the analysis of plasma-based cell-free nucleic acids, proteins and metabolites as well as the characterization of circulating tumor cells in blood and disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow will improve outcome prediction, patient monitoring and secondary treatment selection. Liquid biopsies are likely to minimize the need for surgical biopsies and could better reflect tumor dynamics, intratumor heterogeneity and drug sensitivities over time, and greatly contribute to personalized treatment.
Liquid biopsy applications for pediatric oncology are lagging behind adult oncology. Studies so far have mostly been retrospective proof-of-concept studies in small cohorts. Nevertheless, these proof-of-concept studies illustrate the technology’s substantial potential. We expect the clinical impact of diagnostics utilizing liquid biopsies to become clear for pediatric oncology in the coming decade.
This Research Topic aims to present original research focusing on molecular characterization of tumor surrogates in liquid biopsies from children and adolescents with cancer (cell-free DNA; microRNAs, long noncoding RNAs, circular RNAs, extracellular vesicles, blood-borne circulating tumor cells and disseminated tumor cells from bone marrow). Likewise, conclusions drawn from prospective studies investigating liquid biopsy-based diagnostics or markers accompanying clinical trials are eligible, as are review articles reflecting how liquid biopsy based-approaches are expected to improve outcome prediction, patient monitoring and treatment selection for children and adolescents with cancer.
Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in of Frontiers in Oncology.
