Types of Biomarkers in Cancer

A biomarker refers to any biological characteristic found in your tissues or bodily fluids that can be measured and evaluated objectively. Examples of biomarkers used in clinical practice include your blood pressure and heart rate.

Biomarkers serve as indicators of normal or abnormal processes, conditions or diseases, such as cancer. In oncology, biomarkers can come in the form of proteins, genetic material like DNA and RNA, and many other biological molecules derived from your bodily fluids and tumor tissues.

These biomarkers are typically involved in the formation of cancer or are released due to the presence of the disease. Therefore, testing for cancer biomarkers in your blood or tissue samples can reveal important details about the cancer you’ve been diagnosed with. This knowledge can help your doctors assess the progression of your disease and even select suitable precision cancer treatments for you.

Apart from their characteristics, biomarkers can be categorized based on their applications. Some are used to make a cancer diagnosis, while others can forecast the aggressiveness of your cancer or predict your response to a particular type of therapy.

Risk biomarkers

Also known as susceptibility biomarkers, these biomarkers indicate a healthy individual’s potential of developing cancer in the future even when they do not currently have any clinical symptoms of the disease. An example would be females with mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes have increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

Diagnostic biomarkers

A diagnostic biomarker detects or confirms the presence of an illness or condition, such as cancer. It can also be used to determine if you have a particular subtype of the disease.

Prognostic biomarkers

Prognostic biomarkers are clinical or biological characteristics offering information on the likely course of a disease and overall outcome of a patient. This is independent of any treatment or therapeutic interventions. If a prognostic biomarker predicts a poor outcome, your oncologists may opt for a more aggressive treatment regimen.

Predictive biomarkers

A predictive biomarker is one that can be used to identify subpopulations of cancer patients with the highest likelihood of responding to a particular type of treatment, such as targeted therapy or immunotherapy.

Monitoring biomarkers

Monitoring biomarkers are measured repeatedly to assess the status of the cancer or the patient’s medical condition following administration of a medical product.. Therefore, changes in these biomarkers play a critical role in disease management and treatment and can be used to monitor how effective a treatment is over time.

Recurrence biomarkers

Recurrence biomarkers are used to predict or monitor if a cancer has returned after treatment. If a patient’s probability of cancer recurrence can be accurately predicted or if recurrence is detected early, it can vastly improve the prognosis and survival of the patient.

There are various biomarkers associated with different types of cancer.