Biomarkers for early cancer detection: A landscape view of recent advancements, spotlighting pancreatic and liver cancers

Abstract

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Early cancer detection is critical because it can significantly improve treatment outcome thus saving lives, reducing suffering, and lessening psychological and economic burdens. Cancer biomarkers provide varied information about cancer, from early detection of malignancy to decisions on treatment and subsequent monitoring. A large variety of molecular, histologic, radiographic, or physiological entities or features are amongst the common types of cancer biomarkers. Sizeable recent methodological progress and insights have promoted significant development in the field of early cancer detection biomarkers. Here we provide an overview of recent advancement in the knowledge related to biomolecules and cellular entities used for early cancer detection. We examine data from the CAS Content Collection, the largest human-curated collection of published scientific information, as well as from the biomarker datasets at Excelra, and analyze the publication landscape of recent research. We also discuss the evolution of key concepts, cancer biomarkers development pipelines, with a particular focus on pancreatic and liver cancers, known as remarkably difficult to detect early, with particularly high morbidity and mortality. The objective of the paper is to provide a broad overview of the evolving landscape of current knowledge on cancer biomarkers, to outline challenges and evaluate growth opportunities, in order to further efforts in solving the problems that remain. The merit of the article stems from the extensive, wide-ranging coverage of the most up-to-date scientific information, allowing unique, unmatched breadth of landscape analysis and in-depth insights.