Liquid Biopsy and Potential Liquid Biopsy-Based Biomarkers in Philadelphia-Negative Classical Myeloproliferative Neoplasms: A Systematic Review

Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) are rare, clonal disorders of the hematopoietic stem cell in which an uncontrolled proliferation of terminally differentiated myeloid cells is noted. Polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET) and primary myelofibrosis (PMF) are included in the category of Philadelphia-negative, so-called classical MPNs. The potential applications of liquid biopsy and liquid biopsy-based biomarkers have not been explored in MPNs until now. Thus, a systematic search was computed in PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science and The Cochrane Library and, in total, 198 potentially relevant papers were detected. Following the removal of duplicates (n = 85), 113 records were screened. After the exclusion of irrelevant manuscripts based on the screening of their titles and abstracts (n = 81), we examined the full texts of 33 manuscripts. Finally, after we applied the exclusion and inclusion criteria, 27 original articles were included in this review. Overall, the data analyzed in this review point out that liquid biopsy and liquid biopsy-based biomarkers (cell-free DNA, extracellular vesicles, microparticles, circulating endothelial cells) could be used in MPNs for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. Future research is needed to clarify whether this technique can be employed to differentiate between MPN subtypes and secondary causes of erythrocytosis, thrombocytosis and myelofibrosis, as well as to predict the development of thrombosis.