DNA METHYLATION AS A LIQUID BIOPSY BIOMARKER FOR EARLY CANCER DETECTION

Abstract

Circulating cell-free DNA released into the bloodstream by dying tumor cells offers a minimally invasive alternative to tissue biopsy for cancer detection, monitoring, and prognostication, and among the molecular features that can be measured in this circulating DNA, aberrant methylation patterns have emerged as a particularly promising biomarker class. Unlike mutation-based liquid biopsy approaches, which can be confounded by clonal hematopoiesis producing cancer-mimicking mutations in non-malignant blood cells, especially in older populations who are the primary target of screening programs, DNA methylation changes tend to arise earlier in tumorigenesis and are less susceptible to this specific confounder, offering a potential accuracy advantage for early detection applications [1].