Applications of Digital PCR in Clinical Laboratory Medicine: Pathogen Detection and Early Cancer Screening

This review focuses on the recent development of digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) in pathogen detection and cancer early screening. dPCR partitions samples into multiple independent units,enabling absolute quantification of target molecules. It surpasses traditional qPCR in sensitivity and accuracy. Nevertheless, it has limitations, such as the inability to distinguish between live and dead bacteria and relatively high costs. In virus detection, dPCR notably enhances the early diagnosis rate of COVID -19 and shortens the HIV detection window period. In cancer early screening, it demonstrates high sensitivity in detecting early-stage thyroid cancers. Despite existing drawbacks, with technological advancements, dPCR is expected to become a core molecular diagnostic tool, contributing significantly to public health and cancer prevention and control. Although there was still scope for improvement regarding cost and automation, digital PCR would develop more efficiently and cost-effectively through technological changes. it was anticipated that digital PCR would become a central tool for molecular diagnosis and play a bigger part in public health and in the prevention and treatment of cancer.