mRNA capture sequencing enabled liquid biopsy precision oncology

Abstract
In contrast to general belief, a substantial part of the human protein coding transcriptome is abundantly present in the blood as extracellular mRNA, ready to exploited. Here, I present probe based mRNA capture as a sensitive RNA sequencing workflow to study thousands of mRNA genes in cell-free RNA from cancer patients’ plasma. Apart from RNA abundance profiling, this type of data can also be use to detect structural RNA variants, such as somatic muta- tions, and RNA editing events, all known to play an important role in cancer. RNA capture sequencing enables liquid biopsy guided pre- cision oncology, such as therapy stratification, treatment response monitoring and early detection of relapse. I will also discuss the preanalytical jungle of RNA targeted liquid biopsies and need for standardization, as part of the ongoing exRNAQC study.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bdq.2017.02.022