Table 1.
African-based studies on the role of circulating molecules in cancer diagnosis.
| Samples | Study Design | Cancer Type | Downstream Analysis | Country | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CTC | |||||
| Blood | 75 BC patients 20 healthy controls |
Breast cancer | Circulating endothelial progenitor cells count CD14, CD133 and VEGFR2 expression levels (flow cytometry) |
Egypt | Montaser, et al. [16] |
| Blood | 50 BC patients 14 healthy controls |
Breast cancer | mRNA expression levels (qPCR) | Egypt | Elnagdy, et al. [17] |
| Blood | 51 BC patients | Breast cancer | CTC and CSC count (flow cytometry) | Egypt | Sayed, et al. [18] |
| Peripheral blood | 70 HCC patients 30 CHC patients 33 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | CTC and CSC countProtein expression levels of CK19, CD133, CD90 (flow cytometry) | Egypt | Bahnassy, et al. [19] |
| Blood | 50 HCC patients 20 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | CTC count (flow cytometry) | Egypt | Mansour, et al. [20] |
| Blood | 40 BC patients | Breast cancer | CTC and CSC count (flow cytometry) | Egypt | Zedan, et al. [21] |
| Blood | 50 BC patients 30 healthy controls |
Breast cancer | mRNA expression levels (qPCR) | Egypt | Ebeed, et al. [22] |
| Blood | 36 CRC patients 18 healthy controls |
Colorectal cancer | mRNA expression levels (qPCR) | Egypt | Teama and Agwa [23] |
| Blood | 147 BC patients 94 healthy controls (41 U.S. healthy volunteers) |
Breast cancer | mRNA expression levels (qPCR) | Senegal | Zehentner, et al. [24] |
| Peripheral blood | 143 primary melanoma patients | Melanoma | The use of qPCR to determine the presence of tyrosinase mRNA in peripheral blood | South Africa | Hanekom, et al. [25] |
| cfDNA | |||||
| Plasma | 195 HCC patients 263 CLD control patients 49 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | cfDNA mutational analysis using droplet digital PCR | Cameroon, Central African Republic | Marchio, et al. [26] |
| Plasma | 40 BC patients 10 healthy controls |
Breast cancer | cfDNA quantification and Integrity index using qPCR | Egypt | Hussein, et al. [27] |
| Serum | 60 LC patients 40 COPD patients 40 healthy controls |
Lung cancer | cfDNA quantification and Integrity index using qPCR | Egypt | Soliman, et al. [28] |
| Plasma | 50 PCa patients 25 BPH patients 30 healthy controls |
Prostate cancer | cfDNA quantification and Integrity index using qPCR | Egypt | Fawzy, et al. [29] |
| Serum | 40 BC patients 40 healthy controls |
Breast cancer | cfDNA quantification using qPCR | Egypt | Ibrahim, et al. [30] |
| Serum | 50 CRC patients 10 colonic polyps’ patients 20 healthy controls |
Colorectal cancer | cfDNA quantification and Integrity index using qPCR | Egypt | El-Gayar, et al. [31] |
| Plasma | 50 BC patients 30 benign breast lesions 20 healthy controls |
Breast cancer | Quantification of cfDNA andmtDNA using multiplex qPCR | Egypt | Mahmoud, et al. [32] |
| Plasma | 120 cancer patients 120 patients with benign diseases 120 healthy controls |
Breast, Lung, Colon and Liver cancers | cfDNA quantification and Integrity index using qPCR | Egypt | Zaher, et al. [33] |
| Plasma | 42 BC patients 30 benign lesion patients 27 healthy controls |
Breast cancer | cfDNA quantification and Integrity index using qPCR | Egypt | Hashad, et al. [34] |
| Serum | 25 HCV-related HCC patients 25 chronic HCV patients 15 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | cfDNA quantification and Integrity index using qPCR | Egypt | El-Shazly, et al. [35] |
| Plasma | 28 HCC patients | Liver cancer | Methylation profile determined for five genes using qPCR | Egypt | Iyer, et al. [36] |
| Serum | 20 NHL patients 20 healthy controls |
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma | cfDNA quantification using Fluorometric assay | Egypt | Hosny, et al. [37] |
| Serum | 76 HCC patients 110 CLD patients 69 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | cfDNA quantification and sequencing of the positive RFLP fragments using nested PCR | Egypt | Hosny, et al. [38] |
| Plasma | 216 HCC patients 121 liver cirrhosis patients 408 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | cfDNA quantification and sequencing using nested PCR | Gambia | Kirk, et al. [39] |
| Plasma | 29 HCC patients | Liver cancer | cfDNA quantification and sequencing using nested PCR | Gambia | Szymanska, et al. [40] |
| Plasma | 12 PCa patients 10 healthy controls |
Prostate cancer | cfDNA quantification and parallel tagged sequencing | South Africa | van der Vaart, et al. [41] |
| Plasma | 1 BC patient 1 healthy control |
Breast cancer | Cloning and sequencing of cfDNA | South Africa | van der Vaart and Pretorius [42] |
| miRNA | |||||
| Serum | 65 LC patients 29 pulmonary tuberculosis patients 29 pneumonia 37 healthy controls |
Lung cancer | Expression levels of miR-21, miR-155, miR-182, and miR-197 assessed using qPCR | Egypt | Abd-El-Fattah, et al. [43] |
| Serum | 60 HCV-related HCC patients 60 HCV-related liver cirrhosis patients 60 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | Expression levels of miRNAs determined using qPCR | Egypt | Ali, et al. [44] |
| Serum | 60 HCC patients 30 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | Expression levels of microRNAs 191, 203 and 335 determined using qPCR | Egypt | Ezzat, et al. [45] |
| Plasma | 45 LC patients 40 healthy controls |
Lung cancer | The expression level of miR-21 and miR-23a was detected by qPCR | Egypt | Hetta, et al. [46] |
| Serum | 60 ovarian cancer patients 30 healthy controls |
Ovarian cancer | Serum miR-21 levels were measured by TaqMan-qPCR | Egypt | Mahmoud, et al. [47] |
| Serum | 35 CRC patients 51 patients with benign lesions 101 healthy controls |
Colorectal cancer | The expression of miR-210, miR-21 and miR-126 was performed using qPCR | Egypt | Sabry, et al. [48] |
| Serum | 106 BC patients 49 benign breast lesion patients 40 healthy controls |
Breast Cancer | The expression level of miR-335 was detected by qPCR | Egypt | Swellam, et al. [49] |
| Serum | 137 BC patients 60 benign breast lesion patients 38 healthy controls |
Breast cancer | miRNAs expression levels were determined using reaction qPCR | Egypt | Swellam, et al. [50] |
| Serum | 30 HCC patients 20 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | lncRNA GAS5 and miR-34a expression level measured using qPCR | Egypt | Toraih, et al. [51] |
| Blood | 9 CHC patients 6 liver cirrhosis patients 9 HCC patients 8 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | miRNAs expression levels were determined using reaction qPCR | Egypt | Zekri, et al. [52] |
| Plasma | 60 HCC patients 60 CHC patients 60 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | miRNA expression levels assessed using qPCR | Egypt | Demerdash, et al. [53] |
| Serum | 224 HCC patients 250 CHC patients 84 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | miRNAs (hsa-miR-1269, hsa-miR-125b, hsa-miR-138, hsa-miR-214-5p, hsa-miR-494, hsa-miR-375 and hsa-miR-145) were assessed using qPCR | Egypt | Elemeery, et al. [54] |
| Plasma | 65 AML patients 50 healthy controls |
Acute myeloid leukemia | Expression of miR-92a, miR-143 and miR-342 was measured using qPCR | Egypt | Elhamamsy, et al. [55] |
| Serum | 64 CRC patients 27 healthy controls |
Colorectal cancer | Expression levels of miR-92a, miR-375, and miR-760 assessed using qPCR | Egypt | Elshafei, et al. [56] |
| Serum | 23 HCC patients 25 post-HCV liver cirrhosis patients 30 HCV patients 10 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | miRNA expression levels using qPCR | Egypt | Khairy, et al. [57] |
| Plasma | 70 bladder cancer patients 62 healthy controls |
Bladder cancer | Expression levels of miR-92a, miR-100 and miR-143 measured using qPCR | Egypt | Motawi, et al. [58] |
| Serum | 60 HCC patients 40 CHC patients 30 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | Expression levels of miRNA-122 and miRNA-222 assessed using qPCR | Egypt | Motawi, et al. [59] |
| Peripheral blood mononuclear cells | 85 ALL patients 25 healthy controls |
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia | Expression levels of miR-92a, miR-100 and miR-143 were measured using qPCR | Egypt | Swellam and El-Khazragy [60] |
| Serum | 30 CRC patients 18 IBD patients 18 colonic polyps’ patients 24 colonic symptoms patients 100 CRC patients (validation) |
Colorectal cancer | miRNAs expression levels were determined using reaction qPCR | Egypt | Zekri, et al. [61] |
| Blood | 30 HCC patients 20 HCV patients 20 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | miRNA expression levels assessed using qPCR | Egypt | Alnoanmany, et al. [62] |
| Urine | 188 Bladder cancer patients 88 Benign bladder lesions 92 healthy controls |
Bladder cancer | miR-210, miR-10b, miR-29c, miR-221, and miR-23a expression levels assessed using qPCR | Egypt | Eissa, et al. [63] |
| Serum | 40 HCC patients 40 HCV patients 20 Healthy controls |
Liver cancer | miRNA expression levels using qPCR | Egypt | El-Abd, et al. [64] |
| Serum | 120 BC patients 50 healthy controls |
Breast cancer | Expression levels of miRNAs (miR10b, miR34a, miR155, miR195 and miR16) determined using qPCR | Egypt | Hagrass, et al. [65] |
| Serum | 112 HCV-related HCC patients 125 HCV-related CLD patients 42 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | Expression miRNA was measured using qPCR | Egypt | Motawi, et al. [66] |
| Urine | 32 HCC patients with post-HCV infection 74 chronic HCV patients 12 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | miRNA whole-genome expression profiling and relative expression profiling for candidate miRNAs using qPCR | Egypt | Abdalla and Haj-Ahmad [67] |
| Serum | 20 Inflammatory BC patients 20 non-inflammatory BC patients 20 healthy controls |
Breast cancer | TaqMan qPCR was performed to detect the circulating expression of miRNAs | Tunisia | Hamdi, et al. [68] |
| mRNA | |||||
| Serum | 40 HCC patients 10 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | mRNA expression levels using qPCR | Egypt | Abdelgawad, et al. [69] |
| Serum | 25 HCC patients 15 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | mRNA expression levels using qPCR | Egypt | Ibrahim, et al. [70] |
| lncRNAs | |||||
| Serum | 80 BC patients 80 healthy controls |
Breast cancer | mRNA expression levels using qPCR | Egypt | Zidan, et al. [71] |
| Serum | 120 CRC patients 30 adenomatous polyps’ patients 96 healthy controls |
Colorectal cancer | Serum expression levels of lncRNAs and miRNA using qPCR | Egypt | Shaker, et al. [72] |
| Serum | 78 HCC patients 36 CHC patients 44 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | mRNA expression levels using qPCR | Egypt | El-Tawdi, et al. [73] |
| Plasma | 32 gastric cancer patients 30 healthy controls |
Gastric cancer | mRNA expression levels using qPCR | Egypt | Hashad, et al. [74] |
| Exosomes | |||||
| Serum | 60 HCC patients 42 CHC patients 18 healthy controls |
Liver cancer | Expression of exosomal RNA using qPCR | Egypt | Abd El Gwad, et al. [75] |
| Serum | 20 LC patients | Lung cancer | Expression of exosomal RNA using qPCR | Egypt | Khalil, et al. [76] |
Abbreviations: ALL—Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, AML—Acute myeloid leukemia, BC—Breast cancer, BPH—Benign prostatic hyperplasia, CHC—Chronic hepatitis C, CLD—Chronic liver disease, COPD—Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, CRC—Colorectal cancer, CSC—Cancer stem cell, HCC—Hepatocellular carcinoma, HCV—Hepatitis C-Virus, IBD—Inflammatory bowel disease, LC—Lung cancer, mtDNA—mitochondrial DNA, NHL—Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, PCa—Prostate cancer, PC—Pancreatic cancer, qPCR—Quantitative real-time PCR.