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Biomarkers for the Early Detection and Treatment of Cancers

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A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Biomarkers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 5316

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Barbara Mroczko

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Guest Editor

Department of Neurodegeneration Diagnostics, Medical University of Bialystok, 15-269 Bialystok, Poland
Interests: biomarkers; non-invasive diagnosis; inflammation; tumor biomarkers; neuroinflammation; specific proteins; neurodegeneration

Dr. Monika Gudowska-Sawczuk

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Guest Editor

Department of Biochemical Diagnostics, Medical University of Bialystok, Waszyngtona 15A St., 15-269 Bialystok, Poland
Interests: biomarkers; non-invasive diagnosis; inflammation; tumor biomarkers; neuroinflammation; specific proteins
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The number of cancer cases is increasing every year. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men and breast cancer is the most common among women. However, a worrying phenomenon is the very large increase in the incidence of other types of cancer, including colorectal cancer and cancers of the urinary system. In developed countries, they are the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular diseases.

Rapidly developing cancer does not necessarily mean that the patient's prognosis is poor. Many of these cancers can be successfully treated. There is, however, a group of cancers that do not necessarily grow faster, but are detected late, only after metastasis. Cancers that are detected early and properly treated do not have to be a judgment against which there is no appeal. Taking into account the above, this Special Issue aims to highlight new findings regarding biomarkers that could improve the early detection of cancer patients and assess their potential clinical application in the rapid diagnosis in early stages of developing disease. Tumor markers can be used in screening for early detection of cancer or during treatment to monitor its effectiveness and staging the cancer.

We are pleased to invite you to submit research and review articles related to the aim of this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Barbara Mroczko
Dr. Monika Gudowska-Sawczuk
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

cancer
tumor biomarkers
tumor progression
early cancers
inflammatory mediators
early diagnosis

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 759 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Validation of a Blood-Based Protein Biomarker Panel for a Risk Assessment of Lethal Lung Cancer in the Physicians’ Health Study

by Lulu Song, Ehsan Irajizad, Andrew Rundle, Howard D. Sesso, John Michael Gaziano, Jody V. Vykoukal, Kim-Anh Do, Jennifer B. Dennison, Edwin J. Ostrin, Johannes F. Fahrmann, Frederica Perera and Samir Hanash

Cancers 2024, 16(11), 2070; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16112070 - 30 May 2024

Viewed by 92

Abstract

This study aimed to assess a four-marker protein panel (4MP)’s performance, including the precursor form of surfactant protein B, cancer antigen 125, carcinoembryonic antigen, and cytokeratin-19, for predicting lung cancer in a cohort enriched with never- and ever-smokers. Blinded pre-diagnostic plasma samples collected within 2 years prior to a lung cancer diagnosis from 25 cases and 100 sex-, age-, and smoking-matched controls were obtained from the Physicians’ Health Study (PHS). The 4MP yielded AUC performance estimates of 0.76 (95% CI: 0.61–0.92) and 0.69 (95% CI: 0.56–0.82) for predicting lung cancer within one year and within two years of diagnosis, respectively. When stratifying into ever-smokers and never-smokers, the 4MP had respective AUCs of 0.77 (95% CI: 0.63–0.92) and 0.72 (95% CI: 0.17–1.00) for a 1-year risk of lung cancer. The AUCs of the 4MP for predicting metastatic lung cancer within one year and two years of the blood draw were 0.95 (95% CI: 0.87–1.00) and 0.78 (95% CI: 0.62–0.94), respectively. Our findings indicate that a blood-based biomarker panel may be useful in identifying ever- and never-smokers at high risk of a diagnosis of lung cancer within one-to-two years. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomarkers for the Early Detection and Treatment of Cancers)

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21 pages, 5284 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Unlocking Overexpressed Membrane Proteins to Guide Breast Cancer Precision Medicine

by Júlia Badaró Mendonça, Priscila Valverde Fernandes, Danielle C. Fernandes, Fabiana Resende Rodrigues, Mariana Caldas Waghabi and Tatiana Martins Tilli

Cancers 2024, 16(7), 1402; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16071402 - 3 Apr 2024

Viewed by 1030

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) is a prevalent form of cancer affecting women worldwide. However, the effectiveness of current BC drugs is limited by issues such as systemic toxicity, drug resistance, and severe side effects. Consequently, there is an urgent need for new therapeutic targets and improved tumor tracking methods. This study aims to address these challenges by proposing a strategy for identifying membrane proteins in tumors that can be targeted for specific BC therapy and diagnosis. The strategy involves the analyses of gene expressions in breast tumor and non-tumor tissues and other healthy tissues by using comprehensive bioinformatics analysis from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), UALCAN, TNM Plot, and LinkedOmics. By employing this strategy, we identified four transcripts (LRRC15, EFNA3, TSPAN13, and CA12) that encoded membrane proteins with an increased expression in BC tissue compared to healthy tissue. These four transcripts also demonstrated high accuracy, specificity, and accuracy in identifying tumor samples, as confirmed by the ROC curve. Additionally, tissue microarray (TMA) analysis revealed increased expressions of the four proteins in tumor tissues across all molecular subtypes compared to the adjacent breast tissue. Moreover, the analysis of human interactome data demonstrated the important roles of these proteins in various cancer-related pathways. Taken together, these findings suggest that LRRC15, EFNA3, TSPAN13, and CA12 can serve as potential biomarkers for improving cancer diagnosis screening and as suitable targets for therapy with reduced side effects and enhanced efficacy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomarkers for the Early Detection and Treatment of Cancers)

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21 pages, 1881 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Interleukin-6 as a Predictive Factor of Pathological Response to FLOT Regimen Systemic Treatment in Locally Advanced Gastroesophageal Junction or Gastric Cancer Patients

by Katarzyna Marcisz-Grzanka, Beata Kotowicz, Aleksandra Nowak, Mariola Winiarek, Malgorzata Fuksiewicz, Maria Kowalska, Andrzej Tysarowski, Tomasz Olesinski, Jakub Palucki, Urszula Sulkowska, Agnieszka Kolasinska-Cwikla and Lucjan Stanislaw Wyrwicz

Cancers 2024, 16(4), 757; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16040757 - 12 Feb 2024

Viewed by 970

Abstract

Background: Perioperative treatment is a gold standard in locally advanced gastric cancer or GEJ cancer in the Western population. Unfortunately, the response rate after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) remains limited. Moreover, there are currently no biomarkers enabling an individual prediction of therapeutic efficacy. The aim of this study was the identification of serum biomarkers of early response to NAC. Methods: We conducted this prospective study in the MSCNRIO in Warsaw, Poland. A total of 71 patients and 15 healthy volunteers gave informed consent. Complete blood count, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carcinoma antigen 125 (CA125), carcinoma antigen 19.9 (CA19.9), and fibrinogen (F) were measured at baseline and before every cycle. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), and interleukin-10 (IL-10) were measured in a pilot group of 40 patients at baseline and before cycle two (C2) and cycle three (C3). Results: Of all the measured parameters, only the IL-6 serum level was statistically significant. The IL-6 level before C2 of chemotherapy was significantly decreased in the complete pathological response (pCR) vs. the non-pCR group (3.71 pg/mL vs. 7.63 pg/mL, p = 0.004). In all patients with an IL-6 level below 5.0 pg/mL in C2, tumour regression TRG1a/1b according to the Becker classification and ypN0 were detected in postoperative histopathological specimens. The IL-6 level before C1 of chemotherapy was significantly elevated in ypN+ vs. ypN0 (7.69 pg/mL vs. 2.89 pg/mL, p = 0.022). Conclusions: The trial showed that an elevated level of IL-6 prior to treatment and C2 might be a predictor of pathological response to NAC. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomarkers for the Early Detection and Treatment of Cancers)

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23 pages, 18829 KiB

Open AccessArticle

DHX37 Is a Promising Prognostic Biomarker and a Therapeutic Target for Immunotherapy and Chemotherapy in HCC

by Nanbin Liu, Hailong Zhang, Chunli Zhang, Zeyu Li, Limin Huang, Jin Sun, Junan Qi, Xi Deng, Na Huang, Yanhua Mu, Zongfang Li and Hongwei Tian

Cancers 2023, 15(21), 5228; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15215228 - 31 Oct 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1079

Abstract

DHX37, a member of the DEAD/H-box RNA helicase family, has been implicated in various diseases, including tumors. However, the biological characteristics and prognostic significance of DHX37 in HCC remain unclear. In this study, we use R software 3.6.3 and multiple bioinformatics analysis tools, such as GDSC, HPA, STRING, TISCH, and TIMER2, to analyze the characterization and function of DHX37 in HCC. In addition, Western blot (WB) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) based on clinical samples validated some of the findings. DHX37 was more highly expressed in HCC samples compared to adjacent non-tumor tissues. Higher DHX37 expression is correlated with various clinicopathological characteristics in HCC, including AFP, adjacent hepatic tissue inflammation, histologic grade, T stage, and pathologic stage. Survival analysis revealed that the high DHX37 group had significantly shorter overall survival (OS), progress-free interval (PFI), and disease-specific survival (DSS) compared to the low DHX37 group. By analyzing the correlation between DHX37 and the IC50 of chemotherapeutic drugs, the results showed that DHX37 expression level was negatively correlated with the IC50 of 11 chemotherapeutic drugs. Further analysis indicated that DHX37 and its co-expressed genes may play important roles in activating the cell cycle, DNA repair, chemokine signaling pathways, and regulating the immune response, which leads to a poor prognosis in HCC. High expression of DHX37 is an independent risk factor for poor prognosis in HCC, and DHX37 is expected to be a potential target to inhibit tumor progression. Targeting DHX37 may enhance chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity and immunotherapeutic efficacy in HCC. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomarkers for the Early Detection and Treatment of Cancers)

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Review

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30 pages, 813 KiB

Open AccessReview

Cancer Screening: Present Recommendations, the Development of Multi-Cancer Early Development Tests, and the Prospect of Universal Cancer Screening

by Laurenția Nicoleta Galeș, Mihai-Andrei Păun, Rodica Maricela Anghel and Oana Gabriela Trifănescu

Cancers 2024, 16(6), 1191; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16061191 - 18 Mar 2024

Viewed by 1681

Abstract

Cancer continues to pose a considerable challenge to global health. In the search for innovative strategies to combat this complex enemy, the concept of universal cancer screening has emerged as a promising avenue for early detection and prevention. In contrast to targeted approaches that focus on specific populations or high-risk individuals, universal screening seeks to cast a wide net to detect incipient malignancies in different demographic groups. This paradigm shift in cancer care underscores the importance of comprehensive screening programs that go beyond conventional boundaries. As our understanding of the complex molecular and genetic basis of cancer deepens, the need to develop comprehensive screening methods becomes increasingly apparent. In this article, we look at the rationale and potential benefits of universal cancer screening. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomarkers for the Early Detection and Treatment of Cancers)

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