Table 1.
Current cancer biomarkers in use.
| Cancer | Markers | Characteristics | Typical Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prostate | PSA (Prostate specific antigen), total and free | High sensitivity in all stages; also elevated from some non-cancer causes | Blood [1,2] |
| PSMA (Prostate specific membrane antigen) | Levels tend to increase with age | Blood [3] | |
| Breast | CA 15-3, 27, 29 (Cancer antigen 15-3, 27, 29) | Elevated in benign breast conditions. Either CA 15-3 or CA 27, 29 could be used as marker | Blood [1] |
| Estrogen receptors | Overexpressed in hormone-dependent cancer | Tissue [4] | |
| Progesterone receptors | Tissue [4] | ||
| Her-2/neu | Only 20∼30% of patients are positive to Her-2 oncogene that is present in multiple copies | Tissue [1,5] | |
| Lung (non-small cell) | CEA (Carcinoembryonic antigen) | Used in combination with NSA to increase specificity, used also for colon cancer detection | Blood [6] |
| Lung (small cell) | NSE (Neuron-specific enolase) | Better sensitivity towards specific types of lung caner | Blood [6] |
| Bladder | NMP22 (Matritech’s nuclear matrix protein), BTA (Bladder tumor antigen) | NMP-22 assays tend to have greater sensitivity than BTA assays | Urine [1,7] |
| Pancreatic | BTA | Composed of basement membrane complexes | Urine [1,7] |
| CA 19-9 (Carbohydrate antigen 19-9) | Elevated also in inflammatory bowel disease, sometimes used as colorectal cancer biomarker | Blood [1,8,9] | |
| Epithelial ovarian cancer (90 % of all ovarian cancer) | CA 125 (Cancer antigen 125) | High sensitivity in advanced stage; also elevated with endometriosis, some other diseases and benign conditions | Blood [1,10] |
| Germ cell cancer of ovaries | CA 72-4 (Cancer antigen 72-4) | No evidence that this biomarker is better than CA-125 but may be useful when used in combination | Blood [11] |
| AFP (Alpha-fetoprotein) | Also elevated during pregnancy and liver cancer | Blood [1,12] | |
| Multiple myeloma and lymphomas | B2M (Beta-2 microglobulin) | Present in many other conditions, including prostate cancer and renal cell carcinoma. | Blood [13] |
| Monoclonal immunoglobulins | Overproduction of an immunoglobulin or antibody, usually detected by protein electrophoresis | Blood, urine [14] | |
| Metastatic melanoma | S100B | Subunit of the S100 protein family | Serum [15] |
| TA-90 (Tumor-associated glycoprotein Antigen) | Could be used to monitor patients with high risks of developing the disease | Serum [16] | |
| Thyroid | Thyroglobulin | Principal iodoprotein of the thyroid gland | Serum, tissue [17] |
| Thyroid medullary carcinoma | Calcitonin | Secreted mainly by parafollicular C cells | Blood, serum [18] |
| Testicular | hCG (Human chorionic gonadotropin) | May regulate vascular neoformation through vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) | Serum [1,19] |
| Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (WM) | Monoclonal immunoglobulin M | The larger size and increased concentration of the monoclonal protein leads to serum hyperviscosity, the most distinguishing feature of WM | Blood, urine [20] |
| Lymphomas | B2M | Present in many other conditions, including prostate cancer and renal cell carcinoma | Serum [21] |
| Lung (non small cell), epithelial, colorectal, head and neck, pancreatic, or breast | EGFR (Her-1) | Binding of the protein to a ligand induces receptor dimerization and tyrosine autophosphorylation and leads to cell proliferation | Tissue [1, 22] |
| Colorectal, lung, breast, pancreatic, and bladder | CEA (Carcinoembryonic antigen) | Subtle posttranslational modifications might create differences between tumor CEA and normal CEA | Serum [1,23,24] |
| T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) | PTK7 | Membrane-bound surface protein of whole cells, and can be used to detect circulating tumor cells as targets | Blood [25] |