Tumor markers have biological functions that we should know. CEACAM1 as an example

Author Info

Alvaro Ruibal Michel Herranz Pablo Aguiar

Corresponding Author

Alvaro Ruibal
Molecular Imaging Group and Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. IDIS. Santiago de Compostela, Spain

A B S T R A C T

Tumor markers are substances widely used in the daily practice and its main clinical application generally lies, not in the diagnosis but in the patient’s follow-up, because they are useful for early detection of a relapse/metastasis and to know the effectiveness of an established therapy. These markers have a main indication in daily practice, but almost all lack specificity because they can be elevated in different tumors. There are a number of aspects of tumor markers that we must know if we want to well understand them in regular practice: metabolism, half-life, hormonal dependence, temporary elevations by known or unknown causes, dosage moment, etc., all of which makes a tumor marker not just as a single biochemical parameter [1]. In that regard, we should recall that tumor markers have normal biological functions that often go unnoticed. With this in mind, we summarize in this editorial normal role of tumor markers (excluding any link with malignant proliferative function), using as example CEACAM1.

Article Info

Article Type

Editorial

Publication history

Received: Tue 18, Sep 2018
Accepted: Wed 03, Oct 2018
Published: Mon 15, Oct 2018

Copyright

© 2023 Alvaro Ruibal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.ACO.2018.01.001