Liquid biopsy consists today one of the most important research topics in the fight against cancer, and represents a novel approach for the selection of patients for individualized treatments. Liquid biopsy provides the potential to follow tumor evolution over time, through simple and non-invasive blood tests, especially in cases where the classic biopsy approach is not feasible. The liquid biopsy approach consists of detection, enumeration and molecular characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood, or detection of specific alterations in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), such as mutations, and methylation, or circulating miRNAs in plasma. This novel approach provides continuous information on tumor evolution and is very important for prognosis and patient selection for individualized treatments.
The Analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells Research team of Prof. Evi Lianidou (ACTC lab, http://en.actc-lab.chem.uoa.gr/), based in the Department of Chemistry, in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), is working on this area during the last 15 years and is widely recognized based on publications, research grants and the organization of three International meetings on liquid biopsy up to now. It is our pleasure to announce that based on recent data (https://www.linknovate.com/search/?query=liquid+biopsy), the ACTC research group, led by Prof. Evi Lianidou in the Department of Chemistry in NKUA is recognized as one of the top research groups worldwide in the area of liquid biopsy.
