Abdouh M, Tabah R, Arena V, et al. - In a consecutive cohort of patients operated for suspicious head and neck masses, researchers herein examined the diagnostic accuracy of a novel oncosuppressor-mutated cell (OMC)-based platform, which was described by them to have the potential for early cancer detection in healthy individuals and for identification of cancer patients at risk of developing metachronous metastases. They performed exposure of OMCs (BRCA1-deficient fibroblasts) to blood serum from patients with head and neck nodules before surgical removal and analyzed these cells for their proliferation and survival. Inoculation of treated OMCs subcutaneously in NOD/SCID mice, and monitoring of tumor growth over time were performed. Overall data support the potential of liquid biopsy combined with an OMC-based in vivo platform for diagnosing benign head and neck masses and predicting if a thyroid nodule is malignant. These results emphasize the concept that OMCs can be utilized to identify circulating malignant factors in cancer patients.