Tumor markers: An overview

Tumor markers are substances, usually proteins that are produced by the body in response to cancer growth or by the cancer tissue itself. Measurement or identification of these markers is useful in patient diagnosis and clinical management. An ideal tumor marker should be highly sensitive, specific, accurate, reliable and easily assayable. But none of the tumor markers have all these characteristics. Apart from their limitations, tumor markers are precious tools for screening a healthy and a high risk population for the presence of cancer, making a diagnosis of a specific type of cancer, along with determining the prognosis and monitoring the course of the disease in the patient, at the time of remission or during the course of treatment. This overview discusses and emphasizes currently available tumor markers, their role in cancer and their recent development in cancer diagnosis and prognosis.