Beyond liquid biopsy: Toward non-invasive assays for distanced cancer diagnostics in pandemics
Ferrara et al.
The finding, in our words
The review finds that lab-on-chip liquid biopsy technologies are sufficiently mature for distanced cancer screening and follow-up, enabling patient-centric sample collection that reduces exposure risks during pandemics.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
Salivary HPV DNA testing achieved 91.7% sensitivity and 100% specificity against oropharyngeal swab in patients with oral cavity cancer, demonstrating potential for non-invasive self-collection screening programmes and long-term monitoring of HPV-driven disease.
The authors developed an integrated sequencing workflow that simultaneously profiles copy number aberrations and a three-gene methylation panel from home-collected urine cell-free DNA, achieving high diagnostic accuracy for both primary and recurrent bladder cancer in a cohort of 89 participants, which supports the feasibility of decentralised cancer detection from self-collected urine samples.
Beijert et al., JCO precision oncology (paywalled) · source ↗
This review summarises how emerging HPV detection methods including CRISPR/Cas systems, droplet digital PCR and isothermal amplification, combined with self-collected vaginal swabs and liquid biopsy from urine or blood, could improve screening acceptability and enable point-of-care testing compared with conventional approaches that require invasive sampling and centralised laboratory infrastructure.
Shi et al., Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · source ↗
This literature review found that DNA methylation markers on self-collected urine or cervicovaginal swabs detected cervical intraepithelial neoplasia as well as cytology. The combination could improve screening uptake and reduce loss to follow-up, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, though more evidence is needed to identify the most efficacious methylation tests.
Sumiec et al., Infectious agents and cancer · source ↗
Profiling EBV DNA methylation in self-collected saliva distinguished nasopharyngeal carcinoma from controls with 90% sensitivity and 100% specificity by capture sequencing; a q-PCR assay targeting one CpG site achieved 78% sensitivity and 100% specificity. The methylation density fell after therapy and rose with recurrence, confirming that decentralised salivary screening can support both diagnosis and disease monitoring.
Zheng et al., International journal of cancer (paywalled) · source ↗