Background: The incidence of breast cancer is increasing in many countries. Therefore, early-stage breast cancer detection is of great importance in order to improve the chances of detection and treatment, as well as the prevention of women's deaths. Nowadays, despite the progress in cancer treatment, the use of non-molecular technologies, such as gastroscopy, computed tomography, and protein biomarkers, is still at the center of clinical cancer screening. These methods have some disadvantages, including low specificity and sensitivity. As a result, in breast cancer screening, most cancer patients may fail to be diagnosed and then miss the ideal treatment period. The objective of the present study was to examine the efficacy of biomarkers, specifically circulating cell-free DNA, circulating tumor DNA, and exosomes present in peripheral blood plasma, as a non-invasive means of detecting cancer at an early stage. In recent years, many efforts have been made to investigate the relationship between methylation markers and breast cancer. It appears that analyzing the DNA methylation pattern in blood for breast cancer could be a promising candidate for further research to confirm their roles in early diagnosis, prognosis prediction, and dynamic monitoring of breast cancer as a non-invasive method. Although the use of blood-based DNA methylation for medical applications is still in its early stages and is along with some challenges (e.g., the lack of unified standards for detection methods between studies and poor reproducibility of selected markers), in some cases, false negative results may be reported due to the low blood-based DNA concentration. However, with the increased sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic kits, their broader applications can be seen in the future.
Type of Study:
Review article |
Subject:
زنان Received: 2023/11/15 | Accepted: 2024/05/5 | Published: 2024/04/29