Table 1 Tumour-related components characteristics and potentialities
Components | Characteristics and potential applications |
|---|---|
CTC | Cells found in the blood of patients with solid tumours Surrogate marker for tumour growth and aggressiveness Genomic analysis |
Exosomes | Cell-derived extracellular vesicles containing proteins, DNA, mRNAs, and miRNAs Biomarker analysis Potential therapeutic application |
Circulating RNAs | miRNAs are the most abundant circulating RNA molecules miRNAs amount and composition differ between cancer and non-cancer landscape and correlates with that of solid tumours Potential early diagnosis biomarker |
ctDNA | Tumour-derived fragmented DNA in the bloodstream that is not associated with cells Detection of oncogenic mutations, prognostic biomarker, tumour burden and minimal residual detection ctDNA methylation profiles |
Tumour educated Platelets (TEPs) | TEPs may offer certain advantages over other blood-based biosources, including their abundance and easy isolation, high-quality RNA, and capacity to process RNA in response to external signals Different RNA profiles in platelets from cancer patients and healthy individuals |
Proteins | Protein/proteome profile as a biomarker for cancer detection; predictive and prognostic biomarkers |