Table 4.
Circulating and tissue molecular biomarkers for PanNENs diagnosis, prognosis and treatment monitoring.
| Molecular Markers | Source | Level | Clinical use | References | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potentially prognostic and/or predictive | Circulating Tumor Cells | CTCs | Serum/plasma | Increased | Related to the PFS and OS | (202) |
| Circulating cell free DNA | cfDNA | Serum/plasma | Increased | Indicative of pancreatic tumor origin, correlates with primary tumors mutations (e.g., ATRX/DAXX) | (59) | |
| Circulating transcripts | NETest | Serum/plasma | Presence of NET “finger print” genes | Prognostic for tumor aggressiveness; predictive for treatment efficacy. | (203) | |
| MicroRNAs | miRNAs | Serum/plasma* | Up/down—regulated | Diagnostic for site of origin; prognostic and potentially predictive for treatment efficacy. | (58) | |
PanNENs, Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Neoplasia; PFS, progression-free survival; OS, overall survival. Serum/plasma*: also detected in tumor and healthy tissue. Useful for correlation between circulating and primary tumor markers.