• Biochemical and Genetic Tumor Markers
Prof. Dr. Nadia Zakhary, Former Minister of Scientific Research, Professor of Medical Biochemistry.
Cancer is not a single disease, as there are many types of cancer. The disease develops through multistep process; namely; initiation, promotion and progression. These steps lead to mutation, increasing capacity of proliferation, survival, invasion and metastasis. It leads finally to tumor cell clonality. The main causes of cancer are chemical, radiation and viral carcinogenesis Cancer cells are characterized by: 1. Displaying density dependent inhibition of proliferation. 2. Reduced requirement of extracellular growth factors. 3. Reduced expression of cell adhesion.4- Excessive proteases digesting extracellular matrix components. 5. Growth factors promoting angiogenesis. 6. Failure of normal differentiation.7. Failure of normal apoptosis. Such properties are caused by genetic alterations of proto-oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes and mismatch repair genes. It can also be caused by epigenetic alterations due to methylation, demethylation, acetylation or deacetylation of the chromatin or some bases of the DNA at specific sites. Genetic and proteomic alterations are applied for prevention and early detection of cancer, molecular diagnosis as well as drug development for treatment.
