BENCE JONES PROTEIN –THE FIRST TUMOUR MARKER IN HISTORY OF MEDICINE

Bence Jones protein is generally accepted term for protein described in urine of myeloma patients. Today, qualitative, as well as quantitative determination of Bence Jones protein serve as routine analyses for diagnosis and screening of myeloma and skeletal affections. Although Bence Jones is not the first to recognize the characteristics of the urine of the diseased, his merit is that he recognized the importance of this protein in patients with myeloma. He is considered as the pioneer in medical chemistry and is one of the first doctors who emphasized the importance of chemical analysis for the diagnosis of the disease. His discovery of proteinuria in multiple myeloma has long been the only biochemical test for cancer until the seventies of the twentieth century, with the discovery of carcinoembrion antigen (CEA) and alpha-fetoprotein (alpha-FP) It can rightly be said that a protein named after him is the first tumor marker in the history of medicine. Acta Medica Medianae 2019;58(1):125-130.