Research progress of liquid biopsy in early diagnosis of lung cancer

Liquid biopsy is a kind of emerging pathological detection technique, which has shown certain value in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. Detections of circulating tumor cells, circulating tumor DNA, DNA methylation, microRNA, exosomes and tumor educated platelets in patients′ body fluids can be used for the early diagnosis and predicting the progress of lung cancer. At recent, the application of liquid biopsy still has some shortcomings. However, with the continuous development of detection technology, it may become an effective auxiliary or alternative method for imaging examination such as CT in the near future, and will provide a new direction for the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. Key words: Lung neoplasms; Diagnosis; Liquid biopsy