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

Abstract

Biomarkers refer to a plethora of biological characteristics that can be quantified to facilitate cancer diagnosis, forecast the prognosis of disease, and predict a response to treatment. The identification of objective biomarkers is among the most crucial steps in the realization of individualized cancer care. Several tumor biomarkers for gastrointestinal malignancies have been applied in the clinical setting to help differentiate between cancer and other conditions, facilitate patient selection for targeted therapies, and to monitor treatment response and recurrence. With the coming of the immunotherapy age, the need for a new development of biomarkers that are indicative of the immune response to tumors are unprecedentedly urgent. Biomarkers from the tumor microenvironment, tumor genome, and signatures from liquid biopsies have been explored, but the majority have shown a limited prognostic or predictive value as single biomarkers. Nevertheless, use of multiplex biomarkers has the potential to provide a significantly increased diagnostic accuracy compared to traditional single biomarker. A comprehensive analysis of immune-biomarkers is needed to reveal the dynamic and multifaceted anti-tumor immunity and thus imply for the rational design of assays and combinational strategies.

Liquid biopsy for early detection and therapeutic monitoring of hepatocellular carcinoma

“…[87][88][89][90] The advantage of CTCs is their further utilization in single-cell, transcriptome, and genomic analyses to identify therapeutic targets and molecular characteristics. 91 The drawback is the heterogeneity of biomarkers, lack of sensitivity due to 20-35% of HCC patients with EpCAM expression, 92 and low signal-to-noise ratio in early stage disease. 93,94 Nevertheless, continuous studies using CTCs in monitoring and predicting therapeutic responses would elucidate the metastatic mechanism of HCC as the previous researches had.…”

Clinicopathological characteristics of Epstein-Barr virus-positive gastric cancer in Latvia

“…EBV positive GC subtype is described to have high percentage of the tumor infiltrating lymphocytes [33] and the amount of lymphocytes is significantly associated with improved survival [34,35].…”

Special Issue: Cancer Biomarkers and Targets in Digestive Organs

“…In this meeting report, Yee et al provide updates and discuss advances in the epidemiology and genetics, diagnostic and screening evaluation, treatment modalities, and supportive care for patients with gastrointestinal cancers. In a critical review, Zhang et al present new perspectives of the development of biomarkers for gastrointestinal cancers [18]. The biomarkers, including those derived from tumor genome, tumor-associated microenvironment, and liquid biopsies, are discussed.…”