Current and Emerging Utility of Liquid Biopsy in Cancers: More than Surrogate Biomarkers (2nd Edition)

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is the second edition of a previous Special Issue, "Current and Emerging Utility of Liquid Biopsy in Cancers: More than Surrogate Biomarkers" (link: https://0-www-mdpi-com.brum.beds.ac.uk/journal/cancers/special_issues/Liquid_Biopsy_Utility).

Liquid biopsy has emerged as a reliable tool for tumor surveillance in studying disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow and circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood, providing crucial insights into cancer biology and the metastatic process. More recently, the development of the detection and characterization of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and other molecules either free or as extracellular vessels have enabled the introduction of liquid biopsy assays into clinical practice; however, little is known about the circulating tumor microenvironment at the cellular and biomarker levels and its potential implementation in determining the best molecular targeted therapies for cancer. In this context, this Special Issue will focus on the clinical application of liquid biopsy in cancer treatment, cancer screening, diagnosis, and follow-up, and the best potential personalized therapies. This Special Issue will be focused on technology, methodologies, and logistics for the eventual integration of liquid biopsy into the clinical workflow.

We are pleased to invite you to participate in this Special Issue, which will focus on the state of the art and latest findings in circulating tumor biomarkers, circulating tumor cells (CTCs), tumor hybrid cells (THCs), ctDNA and ctRNA (coding and noncoding), protein analysis, and clinical evidence for the implementation of liquid biopsy in clinical practice.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Application of liquid biopsy in cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and clinical management;
• Circulating tumor cells in blood sample characterization;
• DNAs, RNAs, and proteins as cancer biomarkers in biofluids;
• Liquid biopsy approximations in immunotherapy response prediction.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Marta Dueñas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• liquid biopsy
• ctDNA
• ctRNA
• cytokine profiling
• tumor biomarkers
• CTC
• THC