Gf. Schwartz et al., CLINICAL-APPLICATIONS OF SERUM AND TISSUE MARKERS IN MALIGNANT DISEASE - BREAST-CANCER AS THE PARADIGM, Clinical chemistry, 39(11B), 1993, pp. 2404-2412
Within the past few years, the measurement of serum and tissue markers
, especially the latter, has assumed a more significant role influenci
ng clinical decisions about treatment and follow-up of patients with m
alignant disease. Breast cancer is a useful paradigm to illustrate the
types and importance of these various markers. Tissue markers, includ
ing nuclear grade, steroid hormone receptors, DNA index, ploidy, expre
ssion of oncogenes or tumor-suppressor genes, epidermal growth factors
, cathepsin D, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), Ki-67, p32,
and others, may influence choices of initial treatment as well as adju
vant chemotherapy and (or) hormone administration. The serial measurem
ent of serum markers, those currently available and those on the horiz
on, for example, may offer a way to monitor patients at risk for recur
rent cancer. Although the current role of these markers may be controv
ersial, as information about them is collected and refined, in the fut
ure perhaps a panel of such studies could be incorporated into forthco
ming clinical staging systems for carcinoma of the breast and other ma
lignancies to define both treatment and outcome.