Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Jul 24, 2020; 11(7): 450-463
Published online Jul 24, 2020. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v11.i7.450
Circulating cell-free nucleic acids as prognostic and therapy predictive tools for metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer
Navid Sobhani, Marianna Sirico, Daniele Generali, Fabrizio Zanconati, Bruna Scaggiante
Navid Sobhani, Texas Medical Centre, Baylor College of Medicine, Alkek Building, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Marianna Sirico, Daniele Generali, Multidisciplinary Operative Unit of Mammary Pathology and Translational Research, ASST of Cremona, Cremona 26100, Italy
Daniele Generali, Fabrizio Zanconati, Department of Medical, Surgical and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Cattinara Academic Hospital, Trieste 34149, Italy
Bruna Scaggiante, Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste 34127, Italy
Supported by Beneficentia Stiftung, No. 2016/16; Lega Italiana per la Lotta contro i Tumori.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bruna Scaggiante, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via Giorgeri 1, Trieste 34127, Italy. bscaggiante@units.it
Received: March 6, 2020
Peer-review started: March 6, 2020
First decision: April 26, 2020
Revised: May 12, 2020
Accepted: May 28, 2020
Article in press: May 28, 2020
Published online: July 24, 2020
Processing time: 135 Days and 13 Hours
Abstract

Metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer remains a disease hard to cure, and for this reason predictive tools to monitor disease progression and therapy response are an urgent need. In this respect, liquid biopsy on circulating cell-free nucleic acids represents an interesting strategy based on robust data. The low invasiveness and the possibility to target circulating cell-free tumor deoxyribonucleic acid underline the high specificity, sensitivity and clinical usability of the technique. Moreover, it has been observed that the cell-free tumor deoxyribonucleic acid of metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer patients can be representative of the tumor heterogeneity. Cell-free tumor deoxyribonucleic acids express the same behaviors as mutations: Variation in gene copy number or the methylation rate of the tumor tissue. Recently, circulating cell-free ribonucleic acid molecules have emerged as interesting markers to stratify the disease. Due to high-throughput technologies, liquid biopsy on circulating cell-free nucleic acids will soon be utilized in the clinical management of metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer patients.

Keywords: Metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer; Circulating free deoxyribonucleic acid; Cell-free tumor deoxyribonucleic acid; Circulating free ribonucleic acid; Liquid biopsy; Prostate cancer

Core tip: Among men in industrialized countries, prostate cancer is the most frequent occurring type of cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. To assure an optimal management of metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer patients, specific markers to monitor response to therapies and to predict the clinical outcomes are an urgent need. Liquid biopsy on circulating cell-free deoxyribonucleic acid is able to give useful information about the genetic status of the tumor and the prognosis. Liquid biopsy on circulating cell-free nucleic acids has the potential to integrate clinical data for a personalized management of patients.