Biomarkers in Gastrointestinal Cancer: Focus on Colon, Pancreatic and Gastric Cancer

Biomarkers for personalized medicine in GI cancers

“…BRAF, a member of the RAF family, is a protein kinase downstream of RAS in the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK signaling cascade responsible for cell growth, differentiation and survival (Vanessa Deschoolmeester, 2012). Pre-clinical data indicates that BRAF mutation leads to constitutive activation of the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, thereby inducing tumorigenic proliferation (Brunet et al, 1994).…”

“…Similarly, Busu et al reports 8% incidence of BRAF mutation in CRC patients (13.5% of the KRAS WT cohort) (Gargi Dan Basu, 2014). The most common BRAF mutation is a valineto-glutamic acid substitution at codon 600 (V600E) (Vanessa Deschoolmeester, 2012). Despite its relatively low incidence, BRAF-mutated CRC is a distinct pathologic, phenotypic, and clinical subset, characterized by sporadic microsatellite instability (MSI), CpG island methylatorphyenotype (CIMP) and right-sided colon tumors (Dasari and Messersmith, 2010;De Roock et al, 2011).…”

“…The utility of cancer biomarkers spans the entire healthcare spectrum from basic science laboratories to bedside applications. In the clinical setting, cancer biomarkers are currently used for screening, risk stratification, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance (Vanessa Deschoolmeester, 2012).…”

New Development of Biomarkers for Gastrointestinal Cancers: From Neoplastic Cells to Tumor Microenvironment

“…Currently, biomarkers are genetic, epigenetic, proteinic, or cellular alterations that are inherent to cancer cells, and have been an integral part of individualized cancer care.Glycoproteins, such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cancer antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), are classical proteinic biomarkers for disease monitoring [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Biomarkers at the genome level, which are often driver mutations such as KRAS and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), have been widely used as a guide for a selection of patients that might benefit from targeted therapies [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]. More recent literature has highlighted BRCA , a tumor suppressor gene involved in the repair of double-stranded DNA breaks, as a viable predictive biomarker for response to platinum agents and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors [ 8 ].…”