Background: Cancer remains a major global health concern, and survival depends heavily on early diagnosis. Recent advances in biotechnology have led to the development of more efficient and less invasive tools for early detection of cancer, key for improving diagnosis in resource-limited healthcare settings.
Purpose: This paper reviews a wide range of biotechnological tools currently being explored for early cancer detection. The goal is to understand their strengths, limitations, and possible impact on both clinical practice and public health.
Methods: A narrative review was conducted using peer-reviewed, open-access articles published between 2021 and 2025. Sixteen tools were grouped into eight themes, such as microfluidics, Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) diagnostics, liquid biopsy, biosensors, organoids, breath-based tests, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-guided tools, and radiomics. Each tool was evaluated for its potential to be scaled for wider use, its ease of access, the strength of its clinical testing, and how well it can be incorporated into existing diagnostic systems.
Results: Several tools, such as wearable biosensors, breath-based tests, and paper-based microfluidics, showed strong potential for use in routine screening due to their low cost and ease of use. Others, like CRISPR and organoid models, are more complex but offer high accuracy and personalization. However, many tools still need wider validation across different populations and clinical settings.
Conclusion: While each tool has its own limitations, biotechnology is helping make cancer tests more accurate, less painful, and easier to access. If these technologies are developed carefully and adapted to local healthcare needs, they could improve early diagnosis and help reduce cancer cases around the world.
Jannatul Firdausi Laskar. Biotechnological Tools for Early Cancer Detection in Clinical and Primary Healthcare Settings: A Narrative Review.
. 2025, 11, 10-20