Table 3 Comparision of several common liquid biopsy methods
From: Cancer metabolites: promising biomarkers for cancer liquid biopsy
Biomarkers | CTCs | ctDNA | Exosomes | Metabolites |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Sample requirement | 5-10 ml | 15-20 ml |  > 5 ml |  ~ 100ul |
Sample preparation | No need | Need, easy | Need, difficult | Need, easy |
Detection content | Tumor cells, DNA mutations | Mutations, methylation, fragmentomic | miRNAs, lncRNAs, circRNAs, protein | Small molecular metabolites |
Cost | High | High | High | Low |
Repeatability | Low | Med | Low | High |
Interpretability | High | High | High | Medium |
Operability | Difficult | Med | Very difficult | Easy |
Stability | Low | Medium | Medium | Low |
Application | Diagnosis, prognosis, therapeutic monitoring | Diagnosis, prognosis, therapeutic monitoring | Diagnosis, therapeutic monitoring | Diagnosis |