Biomarkers, Cancer Therapy & Clinical Research

Biomarkers and Diseases

A biomarker is a distinctive tool or agent which can be equitably measured as an indicator of commonly biological processes, pathogenic processes or a pharmacological response to a therapeutic intervention. Biomarkers can be used for many purposes including disease diagnosis and prognosis, prediction and assessment of treatment response. Also, Biomarkers are used as an indicator of a biological factor that represents either a sub-clinical manifestation, stage of the disorder, or a surrogate manifestation of the disease. The potential uses of this class of biomarkers include, firstly as identification of individuals destined to become affected or who are in the “pre-clinical” stages of the illness, secondly, reduction in disease heterogeneity in clinical trials or epidemiologic studies, third, reflection of the natural history of disease encompassing the phases of induction, latency and detection, and finally, target for a clinical trial.

Some diseases are:-

§  Autoimmune disease

§  Alzheimer's disease

§  Cardiovascular disease

§  Neurological disorder

§  Immunological disorder