Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
Med Princ Pract. 2013;22(1):4-11. doi: 10.1159/000338393. Epub 2012 May 15.
Tumor markers are playing an increasingly important role in cancer detection and management. These laboratory-based tests are potentially useful in screening for early malignancy, aiding cancer diagnosis, determining prognosis, surveillance following curative surgery for cancer, up front predicting drug response or resistance, and monitoring therapy in advanced disease. Clinically useful markers include fecal occult blood testing in screening for early colorectal cancer, carcinoembryonic antigen in the management of patients with colorectal cancer, both α-fetoprotein and human chorionic gonadotrophin in the management of patients with non-seminomatous germ cell tumors, CA 125 for monitoring therapy in patients with ovarian cancer, estrogen receptors for predicting response to hormone therapy in breast cancer, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 for the identification of women with breast cancer likely to respond to trastuzumab (Herceptin) and KRAS mutational status for identifying patients with advanced colorectal cancer likely to benefit from treatment with the anti-epidermal growth factor receptor antibodies, cetuximab and panitumumab. Although widely used, the value of prostate-specific antigen screening in reducing mortality from prostate cancer is unclear.
肿瘤标志物在癌症的检测和管理中发挥着越来越重要的作用。这些基于实验室的检测在筛查早期恶性肿瘤、辅助癌症诊断、确定预后、癌症根治性手术后的监测、预测药物反应或耐药性、以及监测晚期疾病的治疗方面具有潜在的应用价值。临床上有用的标志物包括用于筛查早期结直肠癌的粪便潜血检测、用于结直肠癌患者管理的癌胚抗原、用于非精原细胞瘤生殖细胞肿瘤患者管理的甲胎蛋白和人绒毛膜促性腺激素、用于监测卵巢癌患者治疗的 CA125、用于预测乳腺癌激素治疗反应的雌激素受体、用于识别可能对曲妥珠单抗（赫赛汀）治疗有反应的乳腺癌女性的人表皮生长因子受体 2 以及用于识别可能受益于抗表皮生长因子受体抗体治疗的晚期结直肠癌患者的 KRAS 突变状态。尽管广泛应用，但前列腺特异性抗原筛查在降低前列腺癌死亡率方面的价值尚不清楚。
