What is the most important and most used cancer markers (proteins) in human blood plasma that is in use today, and which do you think is going to be the most important cancer markers in blood plasma in the coming years for early detection of the most unfolded types of cancer?
If you know about some new research papers in this area, they are very welcome.
Thank you
So Martin, different cancer type has different markers. For a particular type of cancer, there could be one or more specific markers are very useful to help diagnosis. But remember, all the markers are not 100% accurate.
Here is a review back in 2012, but it should help you.
https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/338393
I don't want to confuse people, but again different cancer could have different tumor markers. We can not say one tumor marker is the most wildly used because it could be just good for one cancer type. Also several cancer share one tumor marker.
For example:
PSA for prostate cancer (woman doesn't have prostate cancer, so it may not be the most wildly used tumor marker. Sorry, Michael)
CEA/CA-15.3/CA27.29 for breast cancer
CA125 for Ovarian cancer
CEA/CA19-9 for colon cancer.
... ...
I usually use a panel of tumor markers instead of only one marker. Tumor markers are never 100% specific, therefore an interpretation in context of imaging studies, other tumor markers, and non-tumor specific changes (e.g. thrombocytosis or neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio) is more useful. For instance, highly elevated CA19.9 with moderately elevated CEA and slightly elevated CA 15.3. could be indicative for a carcinoma of the upper gastrointestinal tract, but a solitary CA 19.9 elevation (with or without CA125 rise!) - in presence of an adnexal mass - would be only indicative for a mucinous histology of the ovarian tumor. Additionally, we cannot forget that slight elevations of almost all tumor markers can occur both at early cancer stages as well as in several benign conditions (e.g. CA125 elevations in endometriosis or liver cirrhosis). This is what makes the use of tumor markers difficult for the purpose of screening.
It largely depends on the patho-histological subtypes.
Squamous cancer: SCC, CYFRA21
Neuroendocrine tumor: Synaptophysin
Adenocarnicoma: CEA, CA19-9, CA125
Germinoma: beta-hCG
yolk sac tumor: AFP
Breast cancer: ER, PR, HER2, Ca 15-3
Colorectal cancer: CEA
Pancreatic: CA 19-9
Lung CYFRA, ProGRP
Ovarian: CA 125
Testicular: AFP, HCG
Liver: AFP
Prostate: PSA, Free PSA
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