Articles related to BIOMARKERS

Biomarkers may be used in the dementias to distinguish different aspects of the underlying pathology, detect presymptomatic pathological changes, predict decline or conversion between clinical disease states, and/or monitor disease progression and response to treatment. In this review, the authors discuss the currently available biomarkers, with a particular focus on the three most common neurodegenerative dementias: Alzheimer’s disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB).

The authors determined the prognostic significance of CTC enumeration and the evolution of both CTC enumeration and the HP ratio over time in the largest longitudinal CTC study in mRCC to date. Potential biomarkers to predict and track response to immunotherapy in mRCC are provided by these insights into changes in both tumor burden and the molecular profile of tumor cells in response to various treatments.

A Narrative Review Liquid biopsy is increasingly being used clinically in advanced lung cancer, according to this review, and ongoing research is identifying applications of circulating tumor DNA-based testing that complement tissue analysis across a wide range of clinical settings. At many stages of the patient’s oncologic journey, circulating tumor DNA technologies are demonstrating potential benefits for patients, health care practitioners, health care systems, and researchers.

A Q&A with John N. Allan, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, who discusses the changing role of prognostic markers, the usefulness of the markers, the biomarkers that should be part of standard testing, when patients should be tested, and much more.

The authors engaged in research to attempt to identify circulating biomarkers for pancreatic NETs, to improve tumor surveillance and quality of life. They examined the expression of circulating miRNA in the serum of MEN1 patients and found an inverse relationship between miR-3156-5p and MORF4L2 expression, representing a potential serum biomarker that could facilitate the detection of NET occurrence in MEN1 patients.

Panelists conclude that sNfL can be used as a biomarker to assess response totreatment in future trials. In the clinic setting, it could become valuable in directingtherapy; for example, in cases in which the patient is absent clinical signs of aggressiveMS and it’s unclear if they will benefit from infused, injected, or oral disease-modifyingtherapy.