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Liquid biopsy: an evolving paradigm for the biological characterisation of plasma cell disorders

Leukemia volume 35, pages 2771–2783 (2021)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 20 September 2021

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Abstract

Liquid biopsies—a source of circulating cell-free nucleic acids, proteins and extracellular vesicles—are currently being explored for the quantitative and qualitative characterisation of the tumour genome and as a mode of non-invasive therapeutic monitoring in cancer. Emerging data suggest that liquid biopsies might offer a potentially simple, non-invasive, repeatable strategy for diagnosis, prognostication and therapeutic decision making in a genetically heterogeneous disease like multiple myeloma (MM), with particular applicability in subsets of patients where conventional markers of disease burden may be less informative. In this review, we describe the emerging utility of the evaluation of circulating tumour DNA, extracellular RNA, cell-free proteins and metabolites and extracellular vesicles in MM.

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Fig. 1: Comparison on information derived from conventional biopsy or liquid biopsy in a multi-focal disease like multiple myeloma (MM).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Myeloma Research Group, Australian Centre for Blood Diseases, Alfred Hospital-Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Sridurga Mithraprabhu, Maoshan Chen, Ioanna Savvidou, Antonia Reale & Andrew Spencer

  2. Malignant Hematology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Sridurga Mithraprabhu, Ioanna Savvidou, Antonia Reale & Andrew Spencer

  3. Department of Clinical Hematology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Andrew Spencer

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Mithraprabhu, S., Chen, M., Savvidou, I. et al. Liquid biopsy: an evolving paradigm for the biological characterisation of plasma cell disorders. Leukemia 35, 2771–2783 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-021-01339-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-021-01339-6

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