Int Rev Cell Mol Biol. 2025;391:43-93. doi: 10.1016/bs.ircmb.2024.08.006. Epub 2024 Sep 7.

ABSTRACT

The sampling of circulating biomarkers provides an opportunity for non-invasive evaluation and monitoring of cancer activity. In modern day practice, this has typically been in the form of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) detected in plasma. The field of ctDNA has been a burgeoning technology, with prominent applications for blood-based cancer screening and in disease status assessment, especially after curative-intent surgery to evaluate for minimal residual disease (MRD). Clinical applications for the latter show an incredibly high sensitivity in certain cancer types with a need for additional studies to determine how much clinical decision-making should be adapted based on ctDNA results and which cancer types, stages, and treatments are best informed by ctDNA results. This chapter provides an overview of ctDNA detection as tool for cancer screening, detecting MRD, and/or molecularly characterizing a cancer, highlighting the rapidly amassing research as a prognostic biomarker and emerging data on ctDNA as a predictive biomarker.

PMID:39939078 | DOI:10.1016/bs.ircmb.2024.08.006

STAR Protoc. 2025 Feb 11;6(1):103635. doi: 10.1016/j.xpro.2025.103635. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

We introduce a protocol for generating 3D organoids from circulating tumor cells (CTCs), enabling longitudinal functional and molecular analyses in pancreatic cancer patients, including those with unresectable disease, which constitutes the majority of cases. We outline the process for isolating and characterizing CTCs from the blood of pancreatic cancer patients and provide detailed instructions for initiating, passaging, and phenotyping CTC-derived organoids. Additionally, we describe techniques for utilizing these organoids in drug screening with a focus on stemness-related pathways. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Tang et al.¹.

PMID:39946239 | PMC:PMC11870243 | DOI:10.1016/j.xpro.2025.103635