Technologies for analysis of circulating tumour DNA: Progress and promise

Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) isolated from peripheral blood has recently been shown to be a biomarker to detect gene mutations for the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of cancer. Utilizing ctDNA as the liquid biopsy has significant potential to pave the way toward a better understanding of cancer at the molecular level and improve patient outcomes in the future. Over the past decades, a large number of efforts have been devoted to the development of valid methods for analysing ctDNA, which provide researchers and clinicians a variety of tools to detect and monitor tumours. In this review, we displayed an overview of current representative technologies for the detection of ctDNA and discuss recent technical advancements. Then, the challenges and outlooks in this promising field are featured on the basis of its current development. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.