Peptide Hormones as Tumor Markers in Clinical Practice

Peptide hormones represent a major class of hormones that are made from amino acids by specialized endocrine glands. The maturation of bioactive hormones take place in the rough endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus, where preprohormones are proteolytically cleaved into prohormones, and subsequently into mature peptide hormones. Once the bioactive hormones are released into the circulation, they interact with receptors located on the plasma membrane of target cells, and initiate intracellular signaling pathways to regulate physiological processes including energy metabolism, growth, stress, and reproduction. However, excessive amount of circulating peptide hormones often associates with the presence of tumors. Section 2 discusses 10 peptide hormones as tumor markers and their clinical application in aiding the diagnosis of tumors as well as monitoring the disease process.