Information for Researchers
What are biomarkers?
Biological markers which can be detected in human body though a range of tests can enable doctors to do various things for a disease. They can be divided as:
- Diagnostic biomarkers: enable early diagnosis
Information for Researchers
What are biomarkers?
Biological markers which can be detected in human body though a range of tests can enable doctors to do various things for a disease. They can be divided as:
- Diagnostic biomarkers: enable early diagnosis
- Prognostic biomarkers: define patients' requirements for additional treatment
- Predictive biomarkers: Define the type of treatment
- Pharmacodynamics: how patient may respond to treatment for e.g., how a drug/medicine may be distributed in body and what effect/side-effect it may have
- Efficacy response: whether patients are responding to treatment
So what is missing?
- To develop a diagnostic test, we are unable to access samples that are
- uniformly collected
- reliably stored
- clinically annotated
- These patients are often seen by diverse specialities in clinics at different sites
- No clear collaboration between clinicians working in different specialities and scientists with distinct expertise.
What are the merging opportunities in research and treatment of cancer patients?
- More effective treatments
- Centralisation of services leads to highly experienced teams with efficient protocols
- Cutting edge technologies in research such as
- Next generation sequencing
- Proteomics, metabolomics, and other -omics platforms
- Cell and molecular biology
- Targeted treatment regimens
- Bioinformatics and IT