Tumor Markers in Cancer Diagnosis and Prognosis

A tumor marker is a biochemical indicator for the presence of a tumor. In clinical usage, the term usually refers to a molecule that can be detected in plasma or other body fluids. Table I summarizes the major concep tual developments in the history of tumor markers. Bence Jones proteins in urine and the serum levels of acid phosphatase have been employed for many years as indica tors for multiple myeloma and prostatic adenocarcinoma, respectively. Although efforts were made in the early decades of this century to identify tumor-specific anti gens, the number of markers in clinical use remained limited, and almost none were available for the more common cancers. The discovery of alpha-feto@@t@Th' (AFP) as a marker for hepatomas, and car cinoembryonic antigen2 (CEA) as a marker for colon carcinoma, provided a fresh im petus for the search for specific tumor