Cancer biomarkers associated with damage response genes

The development and validation of prognostic and predictive cancers biomarkers associated with damage response genes is a rapidly moving field. Prognostic and predictive markers can be measured at the level of protein (by immunohistochemistry, proteomics, etc.), mRNA (mRNA expression, arrays, etc.) and DNA (DNA adducts, mutation and other sequence variant screens, epigenomics, including methylation studies, etc.). The challenge in the cancer biomarker field is in identifying which proteins play a critical limiting role in the cellular responses to DNA damage, the sequence variants, if any, that impact on the functionality of these responses and how these processes vary between normal and tumour cells. The understanding of these processes is essential in order that simple non-invasive tests that indicate cancer risk and allow early cancer detection and prognosis can be established. In addition biomarkers able to predict how an individual would respond to therapy could allow the personalisation and thus optimisation of therapeutic protocols.