Radiology and Oncology

Despite of remarkable improvements in early detection of cancer, the development of a metastatic disease remains the main cause of death for the vast majority of patients. More than 70% of solid tumours are

detected at later stage of this disease. As per WHO report, Worldwide, more than seven million people per year die as a consequence of a metastatic disease. Secondly so far cancer therapy decisions are often made according to the histopathological studies of tumour biopsies. It has been shown that tumour profile change with time and treatment which need proper follow up for monitoring the response of radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Many times it is not possible because of invasive process required to take tissue biopsy of these cancer patients. In such situation, there is definite need to overcome a number of clinical as well as technical difficulties of these treatment by understanding exact mechanism of cancer cell metastasis so that it can be implemented more effectively to target metastatic cancer cells for better cure of this disease. Last few years, the term “liquid biopsies” has been introduced to represent multifunctional circulating tumour cell biomarkers in the peripheral blood which represents the in vivo counterpart of tumour of this cancer patients. Liquid biopsies are a non-invasive alternative to tissue biopsies and thus liquid biopsies seem to be a promising approach for personalized medicine, which enable to predict, monitor, and final selection of appropriate therapy for individual cancer patient. Circulating Tumour Cells (CTCs) are the cells which are shredded from actually tumour of cancer patient and comes into blood circulation. The molecular profiling and enumeration of CTCs

can predict the metastatic potential of cancer cells, thereby facilitating improved treatment and prognosis. This testing can avoid in vivo biopsies. Liquid biopsies permit repeated, non-invasive sample collection from cancer patients that can be profiled for gene expression study. This allows clinicians to choose specific therapies

targeting particular mutations in combination with low doses of Radiotherapy or Chemotherapy. Ultimately,  analysis of CTCs from liquid biopsies could be useful in the majority of invasive solid tumours, including breast, colon, lung, prostate, and pancreatic cancers.