Genetic biomarkers: Potential roles in cancer diagnosis

Abstract

Biomarkers are indicators of pathogenic processes, typical biological processes, or pharmacological reactions to a therapy. It has several potential usages in cancer; differential diagnosis, prognosis, risk assessment, therapeutic response, and monitoring of disease progression. Recently, advances in oncomarkers raised significant opportunities for enhancing management of cancer. Chromosomal aberration, molecular impairment and epigenetic alteration might be applied to diagnose and prognose cancer and its epidemiology. Some oncomarkers are specific and highly sensitive for detection. An oncomarker might be used to see how the body reacts to an intervention or a situation. The present study represents a short review about various genetic oncomarkers with diagnostic and prognostic values.

KRAS and MT-CO1 genes in colorectal cancer: a molecular investigation

“…rate, miRNA and changes in those proteins which are responsible for the regulation of KRAS activities affect its expression level (12,23). The mutated KRAS that expresses in higher amounts according to wild-type KRAS leads to increased cell proliferation in colorectal cancer (13,24). The idea of KRAS decreasing apoptosis in CRC and other cancer types due to mutation is still debatable.…”

An Overview: Genetic Tumor Markers for Early Detection and Current Gene Therapy Strategies

“…As mentioned above, there are cancer-producing alterations in genes and these abnormalities can be detected as genetic tumor markers to diagnose the presence of cancer in the body. 3 , 10 The progression of cancer involves multiple genetic and epigenetic events that disrupt the balance between cell division and apoptosis. Genes that affect cancer progression are known as cancer driver genes, 11 which can be classified as tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) and oncogenes (OGs) based on their roles in cancer progression.…”

“…Abnormal changes in body cell molecules (genes) and their products can be detected and serve as genetic tumor biomarkers. 3 , 4 These direct tumor biomarkers of genetic origin offer an earlier and more precise diagnosis of cancer than the conventional protein-based tumor markers. 4 Another advantage of these gene-based tumor biomarkers is that they can also be used to see the prognosis of the disease if one or more of these biomarkers are monitored for changes during and after the therapy.…”