Microsampling and exosome-enriched optical biochip for non-invasive detection of breast cancer exosomes in clinical human tear fluid
Zhang et al.
The finding, in our words
An optical biochip that integrates tear collection, exosome enrichment and detection required only 14 μL of tears to distinguish breast cancer patients from healthy donors with 100 per cent sensitivity and specificity in about ten minutes. This demonstrates potential for non-invasive, rapid, on-site breast cancer diagnosis in decentralised settings.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
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.
Ferrara et al., Biosensors & bioelectronics · source ↗
A 2025 review maps 28 microsampling devices, from dried spots and volumetric absorptive tips to upper-arm liquid capillary collectors, and names what a laboratory must control before their results are used: the haematocrit effect in non-volumetric dried samples, interstitial fluid from finger milking, volume, haemolysis and transport stability. Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic ask for the same two things, a device the patient can use safely and a sample fit for the test.
This review surveys the use of tumour-derived cell-free DNA in urine for detecting non-urological cancers, covering methodological challenges such as DNA methylation analysis and transrenal transport mechanisms, and argues that urine self-collection could enable convenient home-based cancer screening at a curable stage.
Adding polyethylene glycol to first-void urine before centrifugation markedly improved cell-free DNA recovery in the pellet, whereas low-speed centrifugation alone removed cellular DNA while keeping cell-free DNA in the supernatant. Pseudovirions pelleted reliably under all conditions, but the study revealed substantial variation between self-collected samples, highlighting the need for standardised protocols in decentralised HPV screening programmes.
Téblick et al., European journal of medical research · 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 ↗