Tumour marker development: Towards validation of clinically useful markers

摘要

The overall goal in caring for a patient with any disease is to provide benefit and minimise toxicity. Given the nature of anti-neoplastic therapies, this goal is especially important in the practice of oncology, where benefits may include saving lives or inducing remarkable palliation but risks can involve extremely problematic side effects and occasional life-threatening toxicities. There has been great hope that the ongoing expansion of our understanding of the molecular biology of cancer would lead to both novel targeted therapies as well as markers that might direct established standard therapies. However, the reality of this hope has been relatively disappointing. Indeed, the Tumour Markers Guidelines Panel of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), composed of a group of experts in the field, has reviewed many putative markers (including both tissue-based and circulating markers), but its ultimate recommendations have been surprisingly sparse (Table 1) [1-4].