Clinical Relevance of Tumor Markers for the Control of Chemotherapy

This presentation is based on our experience with tumor marker monitoring of surgery therapy and chemotherapy effects. The control of chemotherapy is one of the most important problems in oncological practice. The correlation between the clinical status of the patient and tumor size changes, based o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Anticancer research 2005-05, Vol.25 (3A), p.1655-1658
Main Authors: FINEK, J, HOLUBEC, L. JR, VISOKAI, V, HELMICHOVA, E, TOPOLCAN, O, SAL VET, J, PIKNER, R, HOLDENRIEDER, S, STIEBER, P, LAMERZ, R, HOLUBEC SEN, L, SVOBODOVA, S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antineoplastic Agents - administration & dosage
Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use
Biological and medical sciences
Biomarkers, Tumor - analysis
Gastroenterology. Liver. Pancreas. Abdomen
Humans
Medical sciences
Neoplasms - drug therapy
Pilot Projects
Stomach. Duodenum. Small intestine. Colon. Rectum. Anus
Tumors
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Summary:This presentation is based on our experience with tumor marker monitoring of surgery therapy and chemotherapy effects. The control of chemotherapy is one of the most important problems in oncological practice. The correlation between the clinical status of the patient and tumor size changes, based on the results of different imaging methods, has been the most important and most frequently used method. However, the therapy effect has been recently assessed by markers of the biological activity of the tumor. Using tumor markers for the assessment of the effect of surgery therapy is already part of routine practice in many different types of cancer. Pre-operative and post-operative values of tumor markers are essential for a proper evaluation. However, tumor marker monitoring of the effect of radiotherapy and chemotherapy has been used very rarely, mostly only for research purposes. Besides monitoring by classical tumor markers, monitoring by markers of angiogenesis and apoptosis seem to be promising for the assessment of chemotherapy effect. Measurement of circulating cancer cells by means of mRNA also seems to be intriguing for therapy effect control and monitoring of the course of disease. Unfortunately, the routine use of these methods has been applied in only a few institutes worldwide. A completely different situation has been observed in palliative treatment. In most cases, changes of serum levels of tumor markers correlate with therapy effect. Thus, the effect of treatment on tumor proliferation can be successfully estimated by decreasing tumor marker levels.
ISSN:0250-7005
1791-7530