Biomarkers in cancer diagnosis – Status and challenges

Abstract

Cancer is the second largest disease throughout the world with an increasing mortality over the past few years. This is mainly because of highly heterogeneous in nature and a few effective therapeutic strategies for the treatment. This also represents challenges amongst healthcare professionals and governments. Although a significant advance has been made in cancer treatment, the morbidity and mortality are still enormous. The possibility of detecting cancer at early stages, before it spreads to distant tissues, has been a matter of great interest amongst physicians and scientists because early diagnosis is a key factor for the successful treatment of cancer. To achieve this, we still need of a potential biomarker with significant diagnostic accuracy for cancer.