Liquid biopsy is a noninvasive diagnostic technique used for monitoring cancer utilizing specific genetic biomarkers present in bodily fluids, such as blood, saliva, or urine. These analyses employ multiple biomolecular sources including circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), circulating tumor cells (CTCs), and exosomes (that contain DNA fragments) to detect genetic biomarkers that can predict, disclose, and/or monitor cancers. Levels of these biomarkers can inform on the presence of cancer, its genetic characteristics, and its potential treatment response and also provide predictive genetic predisposition information for specific cancers including oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC). Liquid biopsies can aid cancer management as they offer real‐time dynamic information on the response to say chemotherapy or radiotherapy and recurrence following surgical excision. Unlike traditional tissue biopsies, which are invasive with a degree of morbidity and require specific tumor location sampling, liquid biopsies are noninvasive and can be repeated frequently. For oral squamous cell carcinoma, on which this review focuses, liquid biopsy of blood or saliva can be valuable in predicting susceptibility, providing early detection, and monitoring the disease's progression and response to therapy. This review gives a general narrative overview of the technology, its current medical usage, and advantages and disadvantages compared with current techniques and discusses a range of current potential biomarkers for disclosing OSCC and predicting its risk. Oral squamous cell carcinoma is all too often detected in the late stages. In future, liquid biopsy may provide an effective screening process such that cancers including OSCC will be detected in the early stages rather than later when prognosis is poor and morbidity and debilitation are greater. In this screening process, periodontists and hygienists have a critical role in that they are adept in examining mucosa, they see patients with shared risk factors for periodontitis and OSCC, namely smoking and poor oral hygiene, and they see patients frequently such that OSCC examinations should be a routine part of the recall visit. With this additional screening manpower, oral medicine and oral surgery colleagues will detect OSCC earlier and this coupled with new techniques such as liquid biopsy may greatly decrease global morbidity in OSCC.

中文翻译：

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使用液体活检进行口腔鳞状细胞癌诊断的策略方法


液体活检是一种无创诊断技术，用于利用体液（如血液、唾液或尿液）中存在的特定遗传生物标志物来监测癌症。这些分析采用多种生物分子来源，包括循环肿瘤 DNA （ctDNA）、循环肿瘤细胞 （CTC） 和外泌体（包含 DNA 片段）来检测可以预测、揭示和/或监测癌症的遗传生物标志物。这些生物标志物的水平可以告知癌症的存在、其遗传特征及其潜在的治疗反应，还可以提供特定癌症的预测遗传易感性信息，包括口腔鳞状细胞癌 （OSCC）。液体活检可以帮助癌症管理，因为它们提供有关化疗或放疗反应以及手术切除后复发的实时动态信息。与传统的组织活检不同，传统的组织活检是侵入性的，具有一定程度的发病率，并且需要特定的肿瘤位置采样，而液体活检是无创的，可以经常重复。对于本综述重点关注的口腔鳞状细胞癌，血液或唾液的液体活检对于预测易感性、提供早期发现以及监测疾病的进展和对治疗的反应很有价值。本综述对该技术、其当前的医疗用途以及与当前技术相比的优缺点进行了一般叙述性概述，并讨论了当前用于揭示 OSCC 和预测其风险的一系列潜在生物标志物。口腔鳞状细胞癌经常在晚期被发现。 将来，液体活检可能提供一种有效的筛查过程，以便在早期发现包括 OSCC 在内的癌症，而不是在预后不良、发病率和虚弱程度较高时发现。在这个筛查过程中，牙周病医生和卫生员起着关键作用，因为他们擅长检查粘膜，他们看到具有牙周炎和 OSCC 共同危险因素的患者，即吸烟和口腔卫生不良，并且他们经常看到患者，因此 OSCC 检查应该是召回访视的常规部分。有了这些额外的筛查人力，口腔医学和口腔外科的同事将更早地发现 OSCC，这与液体活检等新技术相结合，可能会大大降低 OSCC 的全球发病率。