Journal Article

Emerging molecular biomarkers—blood-based strategies to detect and monitor cancer

Baik, Christina S., Hanash, Samir M., Kallioniemi, Olli

2011

Overview

There is an urgent clinical requirement for the detection of early-stage cancer at a time point where curative treatment may be possible. Blood-based biomarkers are likely to be a key component of this detection and of staging and the monitoring of therapy outcomes. To achieve the full potential of these biomarkers international collaborations are required to provide robust, reproducible data that can then be rapidly translated into the clinic. There is an urgent need for blood-based, noninvasive molecular tests to assist in the detection and diagnosis of cancers in a cost-effective manner at an early stage, when curative interventions are still possible. Additionally, blood-based diagnostics can classify tumors into distinct molecular subtypes and monitor disease relapse and response to treatment. Increasingly, biomarker strategies are becoming critical to identify a specific patient subpopulation that is likely to respond to a new therapeutic agent. The improved understanding of the underlying molecular features of common cancers and the availability of a multitude of recently developed technologies to interrogate the genome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolome of tumors and biological fluids have made it possible to develop clinically applicable and cost-effective tests for many common cancers. Overall, the paradigm shift towards personalized and individualized medicine relies heavily on the increased use of diagnostic biomarkers and classifiers to improve diagnosis, management and treatment. International collaborations, involving both the private and public sector will be required to facilitate the development of clinical applications of biomarkers, using rigorous standardized assays. Here, we review the recent technological and scientific advances in this field. Key Points Future cancer care will rely on the use of biomarkers to detect cancer early and to individualize diagnostics, tumor classification and treatment selection The rich content of blood provides an ideal compartment to develop noninvasive diagnostics for cancer Large numbers of novel potential biomarkers have been discovered, including circulating proteins, nucleic acids, metabolites and tumor cells For most candidate biomarkers, definitive validation studies for specific clinical applications are lacking A side-by-side comparison of the performance of diverse biomarkers and causal networks constructed by integrating multiomic data would be useful to provide a better context for evaluating blood-based biomarkers International collaborations will be required to facilitate the clinical application of biomarkers, using rigorous standardized assays and clinical studies

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 631/208/212/2166 / 631/67/1857 / 631/67/2322 / 692/699/67/69 / Biological markers / Biomarkers, Tumor - blood / Blood / Cancer / Diagnosis / Drug Monitoring / Genetic aspects / Humans / Medical examination / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Neoplasms - blood / Neoplasms - therapy / Oncology / review-article