Clinical Chemistry Podcast

Liquid biopsy methods are an exciting area in cancer screening, diagnosis, and management.  These methods are aimed at measuring genomic signatures of tumor cells in the blood.  They rely on detection of circulating tumor cells, tumor-derived extracellular vesicles, or exosomes, or cell-free circulating DNA.  Liquid biopsy methods have been proposed to compliment, enhance or perhaps even replace tissue biopsy in some scenarios.  Liquid biopsy methods are an exciting area in cancer screening, diagnosis, and management.  These methods are aimed at measuring genomic signatures of tumor cells in the blood.  They rely on detection of circulating tumor cells, tumor-derived extracellular vesicles, or exosomes, or cell-free circulating DNA.  Liquid biopsy methods have been proposed to compliment, enhance or perhaps even replace tissue biopsy in some scenarios.   Beyond the minimal invasiveness, performing liquid biopsy may overcome some other weaknesses of tissue biopsy that are related to a single site’s inability