Abstract:
Liquid biopsy is a minimally invasive procedure that utilizes body fluids, primarily blood,
and allows for the early detection of cancer. This study utilized a meta-analysis in order to evaluate
the diagnostic values of liquid biopsy using cfDNA, CTCs, and ctDNA as molecular biomarkers
in detecting liver, lung, and colorectal cancer – the three most common cancers in the Philippines.
A meta-analysis was performed using articles obtained from NLM, PubMed, Medline databases,
Web of Science, ResearchGate and Google Scholar. Based on the included studies, CTCs had the
highest sensitivity, while both ctDNA and CTCs had the highest specificity. The pooled sensitivity
and specificity for overall liquid biopsy were 0.83 (95%C 0.82-0.85) and 0.93 (95%CI 0.93-0.94),
respectively. Overall liquid biopsy had a PLR, NLR and DOR of 15.38 (95% 10.43-22.68), 0.21
(95% 0.18-0.025), and 95.98 (95% 55.91-164.75), respectively and suggest no statistical
significance with the values obtained from the gold standard. Bioinformatics techniques were used
to create primers and protein models for AFP, KRAS and SEPT9. All 8 designed primers proved
to be efficient due to the promising specificity properties that were collected from the designed
primers and the properties that were present from the published primers. The KRAS mutations
exhibited the substitution of glutamine to histidine and suggest interference with GTP hydrolysis,
while the mutations in SEPT9 contained deletions and substitutions and suggest interference with
cell division. AFP mutations exhibited deletions; however, further research is required to
determine how tehse mutations alter the normal function of the gene.
