Research progress of surface-enhanced Raman scattering technology in tumor liquid biopsy

Abstract

Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering technology has shown broad application potential in tumor diagnosis due to its excellent sensitivity and specificity. With the increasing demand for early tumor detection and precision medicine, SERS has been widely applied in the detection of tumor markers, particularly in liquid biopsy. This review systematically summarizes the recent advances of SERS in detecting key liquid biopsy biomarkers (exosomes, CTCs, ctDNA), critically analyzes its advantages in sensitivity and multiplexing, and discusses the main challenges for clinical translation, including signal interference in complex biological environments and the need for improved quantitative accuracy. Future perspectives integrating AI and multimodal strategies are also outlined to guide the development of precision oncology tools.

Keywords: exosome; liquid biopsy; surface-enhanced Raman scattering; tumor diagnosis; tumor markers.