Cancer Biomarkers: Clinical Aspects and Laboratory Determination

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide with almost 10 million
cases in 2020 per estimates of the WHO. In 2020 the most common
causes of cancer deaths were attributed to malignancies of the lung,
colon and rectum, liver, stomach, and breast. Approximately,
400,000 children are diagnosed every year, worldwide.
In this book, that is part of the series on biomarkers published by
Elsevier, the focus is on cancer biomarkers, clinical aspects, and
laboratory determination. As the book is targeted for medical students,
physicians, oncologists, pathologists, clinical chemists, and
medical technologists, we have focused on four areas. The first section,
Chapters 1
3, discuss the overview of traditional and nontraditional
biomarkers followed by laboratory testing in pediatric as well
as adult cancer patients. Emphasis is placed on the unique challenges
in the management of these two segments of the cancer
patient population. This is followed by Chapters 4
6 that focus on
prostate-specific antigen, thyroglobulin, and monoclonal proteins.
Chapters 7
9 discuss liquid biopsy, chimeric antigen receptor Tcell
therapies, and the validation of circulating tumor cells and cellfree
DNA in cerebrospinal fluid. The fourth section that includes
Chapters 10
12 assesses emerging technologies as well as differentplatforms in biomarker testing with summary, conclusions, and further
direction. Finally, Chapter 13 broadly summarizes the current
status of standard cancer biomarkers and discusses likely future
developments with circulating tumor DNA, circulating tumor cells,
and extracellular vesicles.