Part of the book: Multiple Myeloma
Multiple myeloma is the second most common hematological malignancy. It is a heterogeneous disease characterized by focal lesions of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow. Since bone marrow biopsy is a single-site procedure, its potential is limited in discovering the many clones present in each patient. Thus, a new approach, liquid biopsy, seems to be more relevant in today’s world. Liquid biopsy can analyze circulating tumor cells or various circulating molecules (cell-free DNA, microRNA, long non-coding RNA and many others) that originated from the various tumor sites and thus will represent many different subclones. This review summarized current situation in research of liquid biopsies in multiple myeloma.
Part of the book: Liquid Biopsy