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Circulating DNA in Cancer: An Overview

Nidhi Singh and Anoop Saraya

In the last decade, research has been focused on discovering markers which have high sensitivity and specificity to detect cancer. Molecular biologists have been trying to find markers which can be detected non-invasively. Circulating nucleic acids in plasma and serum of cancer patients and the mutations detected in them have gained immense importance in this field. Circulating nucleic acids (CNAs) include DNA, RNA, nucleosomal DNA, microRNA, viral DNA. This review focuses on circulating DNA, its origin and mechanism of release, its diagnostic and prognostic utility, association with any of the clinic pathological parameters and its role in monitoring treatment efficiency in cancer. However, due to lack of uniformity in laboratory techniques, variability in disease advancement, less number of samples in various studies, lack of evidences for the origin of circulating nucleic acids, the knowledge sequestered till now in this field has not been translated in to clinical practice. With more high throughput techniques, circulating nucleic acid levels and mutations in them may give rise to a new era of cancer diagnostics and therapy.