There is great interest in the development of new markers that can aid cancer patients and their physicians in the process of clinical decision-making. There are three general categories of such markers:
Diagnostic markers are important aids in assessing the tissue of origin of a malignancy or the specific subtype of a tumor.
Prognostic markers indicate the likelihood of outcome (tumor recurrence, patient survival) regardless of the specific treatment the patient receives. For example, in most solid tumors the spread of cancer cells to lymph nodes indicates an increased likelihood of tumor recurrence independent of the particular form of therapy the patient receives following surgery.
Predictive markers indicate the likelihood of response to a specific therapy. For example, breast cancers that express the estrogen receptor tend to respond to hormonal therapies such as tamoxifen.
Some markers can be used to monitor a patient’s response to therapy or to detect the growth of metastases. Markers of precancerous conditions are also sought, in order to serve as the basis for screening strategies or to identify populations at high risk for cancer who might benefit from preventive measures. For further information on biomarkers for cancer detection please visit the Division of Cancer Prevention website (http://www.cancer.gov/prevention/cbrg/index.html ).
There is increasing interest in defining molecular targets for new therapeutic agents. For example, treatment with the monoclonal antibody Herceptin is offered to patients whose tumors have amplified the Her2/neu gene or over-express the Her2/neu gene product.
Markers are generally considered to be expressed within the neoplastic cells. However, useful markers may be molecules that are associated with non-neoplastic cells that may be components of the stroma of a cancer or the infiltrating host inflammatory cells. Also while some markers are secreted into the blood or other body fluids other markers are restricted to expression within neoplastic tissues. However, as a marker is characterized, it is important that the investigator determine where the marker is most easily measured because it may have a large impact on the design and sensitivity of an assay to measure that marker.
The successful outcome of research in cancer biomarkers is the development of a new assay, procedure or technique that provides information useful to physicians and patients in designing the course of cancer treatment. A new marker is obviously significant if it will have a clear impact on those decisions that clinicians struggle with today. The nature of a “difficult decision” depends on the type of cancer, the stage of the disease and the range of treatment options.
It may not be clear at the outset whether a new marker will be most useful for the purpose of cancer detection, diagnosis, prognosis or predicting response to specific therapies. Validation of a marker for cancer screening in asymptomatic people will generally require testing large numbers of subjects, most of whom will never develop cancer, and waiting many years for outcome data to accumulate. Again, for further information on biomarkers for cancer detection please visit the Division of Cancer Prevention website (http://www.cancer.gov/prevention/cbrg/index.html ). Validation of a marker and test for predicting response to a specific therapy may take less time and be incorporated into the design of phase II or phase III clinical trials of novel therapeutic agents.
The assay used to measure or evaluate expression of a marker is as important as the marker itself. Assay techniques that were originally developed for use with cultured cells or animal tissues frequently must be modified for use on the patient tissues or fluids sent to the clinical laboratory. Most clinical laboratory assays, with the exception of some blood and urine tests, are designed to work on tissues that have been preserved in some way. Most diagnoses of cancer are made by microscopic examination of a specimen that is fixed in formalin and embedded in a block of paraffin. Sections of frozen tissue may be used to make a preliminary diagnosis. Assays that require fresh tissue or tissue preserved in fixatives other than formalin are generally more complicated and more expensive to perform.
Clinical laboratory assays require scrupulous attention to control for intra- and inter-laboratory variability in the scoring and reporting of results. Often the investigators scoring laboratory assays are blinded to the clinical outcomes and vice versa, to minimize bias. Quality-control procedures should be designed with active participation by the statistician and should be in place from the very beginning whether a study is to be performed at a single site or at multiple institutions.
Although the concept for a new cancer biomarker may begin with a single investigator, its successful development invariably requires a team approach. The members of the team will usually include:
The CDP’s Program for the Assessment of Clinical Cancer Tests (PACCT) and an international collaboration have developed guidelines to begin a dialog about the information that should be included in all publications about tumor markers. The guidelines have been published to encourage comments from the research community and from members of journal editorial boards (http://cancerdiagnosis.nci.nih.gov/assessment/progress/remark.htm ).
See more: Program for the Assessment of Clinical Cancer Tests (PACCT)
