Liquid Biopsy

Liquid biopsy, a less-invasive alternative to conventional biopsy, analyzes blood for circulating tumor cells to detect cancer.

Liquid biopsy, which eschews conventional, invasive tissue biopsies in favor of a blood test that’s analyzed for the presence of circulating tumor cells, is one technology Divyaa Ravishankar, transformational health senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan, predicts will hit its stride in 2016.

“Promising applications for the use of this next-generation sequencing are prostate cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and lung cancer,” she says, adding that Sequenom, Trovagene, and RainDance Technologies are leaders in the space. 

[image courtesy of PRAISAENG/FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET]