LIQUID BIOPSY: POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS IN URO-ONCOLOGY

In the recent years, research in oncology has focused on liquid biopsies, which rely on the detection of cancer-derived components, including circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), circulating free RNA (cfRNA), and extracellular vesicles (EVs), in the biofluids of patients, providing genomic, epigenetic and transcriptomic, information about tumors and metastatic sites. In this review we collect current evidence regarding the potential of liquid biopsies for the diagnosis and follow-up of uro-oncology patients, as well as the advantages and limitations of these approaches. Although promising, the way in which this methodology must be incorporated into the clinical routine needs to be still defined both at the pre-analytical and analytical level before their clinical utility is demonstrated.