Events

Lecture - Overview on Cancer Biomarkers in Obstetrics & Gynaecology

FML at EOFF 2014 in Dubai

Overview on Cancer Biomarkers in Obstetrics and Gynecology

PD Dr. med. habil. Michaela Jaksch
Consultant in Laboratory Medicine
Medical Director
Freiburg Medical Laboratory, Dubai, UAE

Many of the currently known tumormarkers are soluble glycoproteins produced by the tumor or by the body as a response to the tumor.

According to Sokoll and Chan (2004) the characteristics of an ideal tumor marker shoud be as follows:

1. Highly specific and detectable only in one tumor type.

2. Highly sensitive and not detectable in physiological or benign disease states.

3. Levels should correlate with the tumor as prognostic and predictive value.

4. Simple in testing, affordable and it should be applicable for screening.

5. The specimen should be easy to obtain.

Unfortunately, these characteristics are not fulfilled by any of the existing biomarkers. There is a tremendous need for protein and genetic biomarkers with predictive and prognostic information. New algorithms, combined testing, oncogenetics and 'liquid biopsies' are promising approaches.

This lecture will focus on existing and new cancer biomarkers in the field of gynecology and obstetrics.

Literature for review: Kobayashi E. et al., Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2012 Nov;21(11):1902-12.