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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Microarray-based Identification of Individual HERV Loci Expression: Application to Biomarker Discovery in Prostate Cancer
Published on: November 3, 2013
ORC-associated replication factors as biomarkers for cancer
Jeffrey W Semple1, Bernard P Duncker
1Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada.
Abstract:
Early detection and treatment of cancer are of central importance to improving patient prognoses. Traditional biomarkers of cell proliferation, such as Ki-67 and PCNA, have had a mixed clinical track record, proving to be good indicators of certain types of cancers but of limited use for many others. Recently, human counterparts of replication factors originally identified in budding yeast have shown great promise as new cancer biomarkers. Each of these factors has been shown to interact with the origin recognition complex (ORC) in yeast, and each has an essential role in the initiation of DNA replication. Studies with minichromosome maintenance (MCM) family proteins show that their levels are upregulated in tumor cells and are much better indicators of a wide variety of cancers than traditional biomarkers. Similarly encouraging results have been obtained in preliminary studies examining Cdc6 protein and Cdc7 kinase transcript levels in normal and cancerous cells.
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