What patients need to know about liquid biopsies in cancer care
https://www.facingourrisk.org/XRAY/liquid-biopsies-for-cancer
Full article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/well/cancer-detecting-blood-tests-are-on-the-rise-do-they-work.html
Liquid biopsies are tests that look for signs of cancer in blood or other body fluids. These signs can include cancer cells that have broken away from a tumor, pieces of cancer cell DNA and proteins or other biomarkers found in cancer cells. Liquid biopsies can be used to screen for cancer before a cancer diagnosis or guide treatment after a diagnosis. (posted 2/6/26)
Questions To Ask Your Health Care Provider
- What is my risk for recurrence?
- How will you monitor my cancer when treatment ends?
- Is there a targeted therapy that might be more effective for my cancer? If so, will I need a tissue biopsy or is a liquid biopsy an option?
Open Clinical Trials
The following research studies are looking at liquid biopsy and cancer.
- NCT06401421: Looking at Tumor DNA Before Chemotherapy to Predict Cancer Recurrence in People with High-Risk, Early-Stage Breast Cancer. This trial is looking at whether the study of a type of biomarker called circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) can predict the likelihood of recurrence for people with early-stage breast cancer.
- NCT04567420: DNA-Guided Second Line Adjuvant Therapy For High-Residual Risk, Stage II-III, Hormone Receptor-Positive, HER2-Negative Breast Cancer. This study monitors people with early-stage, high-risk breast cancer for possible recurrence using a test called circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). People who test positive for ctDNA but who have no other signs of recurrence, receive either the drugs palbociclib combined with fulvestrant or standard-of-care adjuvant hormone therapy.
- NCT03568630 Blood markers of early pancreas cancer. This study attempts to identify markers of early pancreatic cancer for screening individuals who are at higher-than-average risk.
- Validating a blood test for early ovarian cancer detection in high-risk women and families: microRNA detection study (MiDE). The MiDe study looks at whether a liquid biopsy can accurately detect early-stage ovarian cancer in women who are at high risk due to an inherited mutation.
Visit our Featured Research Page and Research Search and Enroll Tool to find additional studies enrolling people with or at high risk for cancer.
About FORCE
FORCE is a national nonprofit organization, established in 1999. Our mission is to improve the lives of individuals and families affected by adult hereditary cancers.