Review: Detection of Cancer Biomarkers from a Clinical Perspective

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Oncology

Background:

• Cancer is a leading cause of global mortality, with increasing death rates projected.
• Early cancer detection through non-invasive and economical methods is crucial for improving patient outcomes.
• Biomarker detection plays a vital role in the early diagnosis and management of cancer.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantitatively compare the clinical application of various cancer biomarker detection methods.
• To identify the most effective analytical techniques for early cancer detection.
• To assess the performance of direct versus indirect detection methods.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review and quantitative comparison of data from 124 publications.
• Analysis of methods including mass spectrometry (MS), immunoassays (IAs), ELISA, PCR, SERS, and FTIR.
• Evaluation of clinical application data, sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve (AUC) values.

Main Results:

• Direct detection methods demonstrated an advantage over indirect methods.
• Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) achieved higher AUC, sensitivity, and specificity in clinical applications.
• Performance ranking based on average AUC (last 6-7 years): IAs (0.76), ELISA (0.83), MS (0.87), PCR (0.89), FTIR (0.95), and SERS (0.97).

Conclusions:

• Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a highly promising technique for accurate and sensitive clinical cancer biomarker detection.
• The analytical performance for cancer detection has shown significant improvement with methods like FTIR and SERS.
• Continued research into advanced analytical techniques is essential for enhancing early cancer diagnosis and patient survival rates.