. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Nov 30.

Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Cancer. 2012 Apr 12;12(5):10.1038/nrc3260. doi: 10.1038/nrc3260

Table 1.

Modalities of Cancer Diagnosis and Screening

	Detects	Examples
Anatomical screen
Macrosopic	Tumor masses	Endoscopy, radiology and physical examination
Microscopic	Abnormal cells	Cytology and histology
Molecular biomarker screen
Carcinogenesis biomarkers	Abnormal molecular species generated by carcinogenesis	Mutated DNA and aberrantly methylated DNA
Released biomarkers	Physiological molecules released in abnormal amounts as a result of the anatomical or metabolic disruptions of carcinogenesis	PSA and stool heme
Response biomarkers	Molecular species generated in reaction to the presence of a tumor	Antibodies and protein degradation products
Risk biomarkers	Molecular species associated with, or supporting, carcinogenesis	Increased hormone levels and the presence of HPV antigens

HPV, human papilloma virus; PSA, prostate serum antigen;.