Role of Biomarkers in Prognosis of Cancer and Prediction of Response by Chemotherapy: A Comprehensive Review

Biomarkers may play important roles in many aspects of cancer management: they may be utilized as tools for drug discovery, as pharmacological markers for drug efficacy both preclinically and in early-phase trials,and as surrogate endpoints for disease progression in late- phase trials. Biomarkers may likely have a role in the development of future treatments, as well. The adoption of personalized medicine has led to increased efforts to identify new biomarkers across tumor types. In addition to well-established biomarkers such as KRAS and EGFR in colorectal and lung cancer and HER-2 and ER/PR in breast cancer, many emerging biomarkers are being investigated in multiple tumor types. Some have started showing promising data, but they will have to go through many steps in the validation process, which might take many years of research.