Molecular markers of carcinogenesis employed in diagnosis and planning of therapy in breast cancer

The most frequent cancer among women is breast cancer. Tumour markers may be helpful in the early diagnosis of breast cancer and the initial assessment of the extent of the disease, as well as in monitoring tumour growth or volume reduction and a recurrence of the cancer. They have also been used for monitoring the clinical course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Many tumour markers may be used in the diagnosis and monitoring of breast cancer, for example CA 15-3 or CEA. In this paper we focus on the role of molecular carcinogenesis markers such as oncogenes, their receptors and tumour suppressor genes in breast cancer diagnosis. The activity of genes in breast cancer may be investigated by DNA microarrays. This method allows the expression of many genes to be analyzed in a single experiment quickly and efficiently.