Biomarkers in cancer medicine

Cancer cases have increased rapidly over the past few years. Unfortunately, doctors have not yet been able to identify what causes cancer. This has resulted in intense and in-depth research by scientists on detecting cancer early and treating it as effectively as possible. Cancer biomarkers are increasingly being considered to have an important role in early disease detection, and in the development of personalised treatments plans for every patient.

What are biomarkers?

Biomarkers are molecules that show normal or abnormal processes occurring in your body, which may be a sign of a condition or disease. Biomarkers are used to differentiate between a patient who is affected with a certain disease from one who is not. Therefore, cancer biomarkers are molecules that indicate the presence of cancer in the body. It should be noted that there are biomarkers for many other diseases other than cancer.

Uses of biomarkers in cancer medicine.

Some uses of biomarkers are: to diagnose early cases of cancer, to predict how invasive a condition is relation to a patient’s ability to do well without treatment and to predict how well a patient will react to certain treatments. Biomarkers are also used to track how well a treatment will work over time, to monitor the recurrence of cancer, and lastly to decide on the best treatment for an individual patient.

Current cancer treatments still use trial and error methods, so the use of cancer biomarkers will definitely be a major breakthrough in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Several predictive biomarkers are now under evaluation in clinical trials and hopefully, will be successfully implemented. This will result in a complete transformation of cancer patients’ care and increase the chances of detecting cancer at much earlier stages.