Youssef J, Yehya A, Salhab Z, Bitar R, Ghamlouche F, Bahmad HF, Abou-Kheir W. Liquid biopsy in genitourinary cancers: Diagnostic and prognostic implications. World J Clin Oncol 2025; 16(12): 113578 [DOI: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i12.113578]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Wassim Abou-Kheir, PhD, Full Professor, Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiological Sciences, American University of Beirut, Bliss Street, Hamra, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon. wa12@aub.edu.lb
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Oncol. Dec 24, 2025; 16(12): 113578 Published online Dec 24, 2025. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i12.113578
Liquid biopsy in genitourinary cancers: Diagnostic and prognostic implications
Joe Youssef, Amani Yehya, Zahraa Salhab, Ricardo Bitar, Fatima Ghamlouche, Hisham F Bahmad, Wassim Abou-Kheir
Joe Youssef, Amani Yehya, Zahraa Salhab, Ricardo Bitar, Fatima Ghamlouche, Wassim Abou-Kheir, Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiological Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon
Hisham F Bahmad, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, Miami Beach, FL 33136, United States
Co-corresponding authors: Hisham F Bahmad and Wassim Abou-Kheir.
Author contributions: Youssef J, Yehya A, Salhab Z, Bitar R, and Ghamlouche F contributed investigation, methodology, and wrote the original draft; Youssef J, Bahmad HF, and Abou-Kheir W contributed to conceptualization and visualization; Youssef J, Yehya A, Salhab Z, Bitar R, Ghamlouche F, Bahmad HF, and Abou-Kheir W contributed to validation, reviewed and edited the manuscript; Bahmad HF and Abou-Kheir W contributed to project administration, supervision, gave final approval, and made equal contributions as co-corresponding authors; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wassim Abou-Kheir, PhD, Full Professor, Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiological Sciences, American University of Beirut, Bliss Street, Hamra, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon. wa12@aub.edu.lb
Received: September 2, 2025 Revised: September 30, 2025 Accepted: November 10, 2025 Published online: December 24, 2025 Processing time: 112 Days and 12.8 Hours
Abstract
Genitourinary neoplasms, including bladder, prostate, renal, and testicular cancers, represent 25% of all solid tumors worldwide. Great advances have been achieved in the last few decades in diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. Among these, liquid biopsy (LB) technology has evolved during the past few years and offers emerging and novel modalities in the field of oncology. LB is performed by withdrawing bodily fluids (i.e., blood or urine) and looking for circulating tumor DNA, circulating tumor cells, extracellular vesicles, and non-coding RNAs, among others. Over the past years, several technologies have been developed to isolate and analyze the tumor burden. LB is less invasive than traditional biopsies and has many applications, including early screening, providing diagnostic cues, predicting disease severity and survival outcomes, assessing response and resistance to treatment, detecting minimal tumor burden before radiological evidence, and monitoring for disease recurrence. However, multiple challenges still need to be addressed, including reduction in variability between assays, standardization of protocols, and validation in large trials to ensure reliability. This review will focus on the latest advancements in LB applications for diagnostic and prognostic characterization of genitourinary cancers.
Core Tip: Liquid biopsy (LB) is emerging as a new tool to help the oncologist for early screening and prognostication. The diagnostic accuracy of the different LB modalities is improving with newer techniques, showing promises in the future for early detection of malignancies. In specific, genitourinary cancers can be screened and followed up through urine LB, offering a non-invasive longitudinal tool for patient monitoring. LB offers new ways to predict disease progression, treatment response and early recurrence, reshaping the future of oncology.
