Liquid Biopsy for Oral Cancer Diagnosis: Recent Advances and Challenges

Liquid biopsy is an efficient diagnostic tool used to analyse biomaterials in human body fluids, such as blood, saliva, breast milk, and urine. Various biomaterials derived from a tumour and its microenvironment are released into such body fluids and contain important information for cancer diagnosis. Biomaterial detection can provide real-time information about individual tumours, is non-invasive, and is more repeatable than conventional histological analysis. Therefore, over the past two decades, liquid biopsy has been considered an attractive diagnostic tool for malignant tumours. Although biomarkers for oral cancer have not yet been adopted in clinical practice, many molecular candidates have been investigated for liquid biopsies in oral cancer diagnosis, such as the proteome, metabolome, microRNAome, extracellular vesicles, cell-free DNAs, and circulating tumour cells. This review will present recent advances and challenges in liquid biopsy for oral cancer diagnosis.

Automated summary

Liquid biopsy is an efficient diagnostic tool for analysing biomaterials in body fluids, which provides important information for cancer diagnosis. In the case of oral cancer, various biomarkers have been investigated, including the proteome, metabolome, microRNAome, extracellular vesicles, cell-free DNAs, and circulating tumour cells. This review discusses recent advances and challenges in liquid biopsy for oral cancer diagnosis.