Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men and it is responsible for about 10% of all cancer mortalities in both American and Canadian men. At present, serum prostate-specific antigen levels remain the most commonly used test to detect prostate cancer, and the standard and definitive diagnosis of the disease is via prostate biopsy. Conventional tissue biopsies are usually invasive, expensive, painful, time-consuming, and unsuitable for screening and need to be consistently evaluated by expert pathologists and have limited repeatability. Consequently, liquid biopsies are emerging as a favourable alternative to conventional tissue biopsies, providing a non-invasive and cost-effective approach for screening, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of prostate cancer patients.

We searched several databases from August to December 2020 for relevant studies published in English between 2000 and 2020 and reporting on liquid-based biomarkers available in detectable quantities in patient bodily fluid samples. In this narrative review paper, we describe seven novel and promising liquid-based biomarkers that potentially account for individual patient variability as well as used in disease risk assessment, screening for early disease detection and diagnosis, identification of patients’ risk for metastatic disease and subsequent relapse, monitoring patient response to specific treatment and providing clinicians the potential to stratify patients likely to benefit from a particular treatment.

The concept of precision medicine from prevention to treatment techniques that take individual patient variability into account will depend on the development of effective clinical biomarkers that interrogate key aberrant pathways potentially targetable with molecular targets or immunologic therapies. Liquid-based biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity for prostate cancer are emerging as minimally invasive, lower risk, readily obtainable and easily repeatable technique for screening for early disease detection and diagnosis, patient stratification at diagnosis into different risk categories, identification of patients’ risk for metastatic disease and subsequent relapse, and real-time monitoring of patient response to specific treatment. Thus, effective liquid-based biomarkers will potentially shift the treatment paradigm of prostate cancer towards more personalised and targeted medicine.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men and responsible for about 10% of all cancer mortality in both Canadian and American men. Currently, serum PSA level is the most commonly used test for the detection of prostate cancer, though the levels can also be elevated in benign conditions, has limited specificity and has a high rate of overdiagnosis and treatment of indolent disease. Consequently, in recent years, several investigations have been conducted to identify novel cancer biomarkers capable of both effective screening and diagnosis, as well as assisting to shift the diagnostic and treatment paradigm of prostate cancer towards more patient-specific and targeted medicine. The goal of this narrative review paper is to describe eleven novel and promising tissue-based biomarkers for prostate cancer capable to account for individual patient variabilities and have the potential for risk assessment, early detection and diagnosis, identification of patients who will benefit from a particular treatment and monitoring patient response to treatment.

We searched several databases from August to December 2020 for relevant studies published in English between 2000 and 2020 and reporting on tissue-based biomarkers for screening and early diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of prostate cancer.

Emerging prostate cancer biomarkers have the potential to guide clinical decision-making since they have the potential to detect the disease early, measure the risk of developing the disease and the risk of progression, provide accurate information of patient response to a specific treatment and are capable of informing clinicians about the likely outcome of a cancer diagnosis independent of the treatment received. Therefore, the future holds promise for personalised and targeted medicine from prevention to diagnosis and treatment that considers the individual patient’s variabilities in the management of prostate cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is the 12th most commonly diagnosed cancer and the 3rd leading cause of cancer mortality and accounts for approximately 2·7% of all newly diagnosed cancer cases and 6·4% of all cancer mortalities in Canada. It has a very poor survival rate mainly due to the difficulty of detecting the disease at an early stage. Consequently, in the advancement of disease management towards the concept of precision medicine that takes individual patient variabilities into account, several investigators have focused on the identification of effective clinical biomarkers with high specificity and sensitivity, capable of early diagnosis of symptomatic patients and early detection of the disease in asymptomatic individuals at high risk for developing pancreatic cancer.

We searched several databases from August to December 2020 for relevant studies published in English between 2000 and 2020 and reporting on biomarkers for the management of pancreatic cancer. In this narrative review paper, we describe 13 clinical and emerging biomarkers for pancreatic cancers used in screening for early detection and diagnosis, to identify patients’ risk for metastatic disease and subsequent relapse, to monitor patient response to specific treatment and to provide clinicians the possibility of prospectively identifying groups of patients who will benefit from a particular treatment.

Current and emerging biomarkers for pancreatic cancer with high specificity and sensitivity has the potential to account for individual patient variabilities, for early detection of disease before the onset of metastasis to improve treatment outcome and patients’ survival, help screen high-risk populations, predict prognosis, provide accurate information of patient response to specific treatment and improve patients monitoring during treatment. Thus, the future holds promise for the use of effective clinical biomarkers or a panel of biomarkers for personalised patient-specific targeted medicine for pancreatic cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men and it is responsible for about 10% of all cancer mortality in Canadian men. The current ‘gold standard’ for the diagnosis of prostate cancer is a prostate biopsy and the decision on when to biopsy a patient with non-suspicious Digital Rectal Examination (DRE) result and total prostate specific antigen (tPSA) of 4–10 ng/ml can be challenging. In order to shift the treatment paradigm of prostate cancer toward more personalised and targeted therapy, there is the need for a clear system that makes its detection binary so as to decrease the rate of inaccurate detections. Therefore in recent years, there have been several investigations into the development of various biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity for screening, early detection and personalised patient-specific targeted medicine from diagnosis to treatment of the disease.

This paper reports on nine currently available clinical biomarkers used in screening for early detection and diagnosis, to reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies, in risk assessment of aggressive disease and in monitoring treatment response of prostate cancer.

Current clinical prostate cancer biomarkers have the potential for a personalised risk assessment of aggressive disease and the risk of developing distant metastatic disease and have been proven to be useful tools to guide clinicians in personalised patient-specific targeted treatment and in the shared decision making between patients and their physicians regarding prostate biopsy and treatment. Using biomarkers to select patients with a significant probability of aggressive prostate cancer would potentially avoid premature death from the disease, while at the same time would safely preclude patients who do not require unnecessary invasive intervention.

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid tumour of infancy and accounts for about 6–10% of paediatric cancers. It has a biologically and clinically heterogeneous behaviour that ranges from spontaneous regression to cases of highly aggressive metastatic disease that could be unresponsive to standard therapy. In recent years, there have been several investigations into the development of various diagnostic, predictive and prognostic biomarkers towards personalised and targeted management of the disease.

This paper reports on the review of current clinical and emerging biomarkers used in risk assessment, screening for early detection and diagnosis, prognostication and monitoring of the response of treatment of neuroblastoma in paediatric patients.

Tumour markers can significantly improve diagnosis; however, the invasive, unpleasant and inconvenient nature of current tissue biopsies limits their applications, especially in paediatric patients. Therefore, the development of a non-invasive, reliable high accurate and personalised diagnostic tool capable of early detection and rapid response is the most promising step towards advanced cancer management from tumour diagnosis, therapy to patient monitoring and represents an important step towards the promise of precision, personalised and targeted medicine. Liquid biopsy assay with wide ranges of clinical applications is emerging to hold incredible potential for advancing cancer treatment and has greater promise for diagnostic purposes, identification and tracking of tumour-specific alterations during the course of the disease and to guide therapeutic decisions.