Open AccessTumor markers: A diagnostic tool
Author(s) -
Madhav Nagpal,
Shreya Singh,
Preeti Singh,
Pallavi Chauhan,
Meesam Abbas Zaidi
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
national journal of maxillofacial surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2229-3418
pISSN - 0975-5950
DOI - 10.4103/0975-5950.196135
Subject(s) - medicine , cancer , tumor marker , oncology , pathology
The purpose of this review is to give a brief background to enable the judicious use of widely performed serum cancer markers. The markers could be product of cancerous cell or as response to cancer. They are usually proteins, which are mainly found in blood or urine. These markers may be employed to predict primary or secondary tumor risk. Sometimes, non-cancerous conditions can also cause elevation of some tumor markers to be higher than normal. Besides, not every cancer patient may have raised level of a tumor marker. For these reasons, knowledge about cancer biomarkers has increased tremendously. Awareness for cancer and related tumor markers providing great opportunities for improving the management of cancer patients by enhancing the efficiency of detection and efficacy of treatment.