Abstract
Any measurable-specific molecular alteration of a cancer cell either on DNA, RNA, protein, or on metabolite level can be referred to as a cancer biomarker. The expression of a distinct gene can enable its identification in a tissue with none of the surrounding cells expressing the specific marker. In the past decade, molecular dissection of the cancer by means of mRNA expression profiling enabled detailed classification according to tumor subtypes. The traditional system of tumor node metastases (TNM) has been the main tool for identifying prognostic differences among patients and for guiding the treatment. The TNM system is based on the macroscopic and microscopic morphological examination of pathological samples. Despite the advantage of uniformity for international communications and studies, there are many limitations of this system as a first-line method for prediction and prognosis of cancer.
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© 2010 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
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Jain, K.K. (2010). Biomarkers of Cancer. In: The Handbook of Biomarkers. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-685-6_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-685-6_6
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