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Review
. 2016 Oct 25:9:6549-6559.
doi: 10.2147/OTT.S100901. eCollection 2016.

Cell-free DNA as a diagnostic marker for cancer: current insights

Samanta Salvi  1 , Giorgia Gurioli  1 , Ugo De Giorgi  2 , Vincenza Conteduca  2 , Gianluca Tedaldi  1 , Daniele Calistri  1 , Valentina Casadio  1
Affiliations
Review

Cell-free DNA as a diagnostic marker for cancer: current insights

Samanta Salvi et al. Onco Targets Ther. .

Abstract

The increasing knowledge of the molecular pathogenesis of cancer and the rapid development of new molecular techniques are promoting the study of early molecular alterations involved in cancer development in body fluids. Specific genetic and epigenetic alterations could be found in plasma, serum, and urine cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and could potentially be used as diagnostic biomarkers for several types of cancers. This review focuses on the role of cfDNA in diagnosis: a PubMed search was performed by selecting papers according to journal impact factor and robustness of statistical analysis. A comprehensive evaluation of "liquid biopsy", including cfDNA analysis, will be one of the critical challenges to better understand the early mechanisms of cancer development.

Keywords: cancer; cell-free DNA; diagnosis; liquid biopsy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

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