Editorial on Imaging Biomarkers in Cancer

Sathvik Raj A^*
*Correspondence: Sathvik Raj A, Department of Biochemistry, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Andhra Pradesh, India, Email:

Editorial

In medicine, an imaging biomarker is a feature of an image relevant to a patient's diagnosis. For example, a number of biomarkers are frequently used to determine risk of lung cancer. First, a simple lesion in the lung detected by X-ray, CT, or MRI can lead to the suspicion of a neoplasm. In the last 15 years, over 110 studies in 2268 patients have utilized quantitative DCE�MRI as a biomarker in clinical studies and trials reflecting the use of DCE�MRI to assess vascular activity in drug development 44 in particular to assess the effect of antiangiogenic or antivascular therapy.

In order to determine if, and at what levels, certain biomarkers are present in your cancer, your doctor will need to take a sample of tumor tissue or bodily fluid and send it to a laboratory to conduct a series of advanced pathology and molecular profiling tests. Quantitative imaging is the extraction of quantifiable features from medical images for the assessment of normal or the severity, degree of change, or status of a disease, injury, or chronic condition relative to normal. Biomarker testing is a way to look for genes, proteins, and other substances that can provide information about cancer. Each person's cancer has a unique pattern of biomarkers. Some biomarkers affect how certain cancer treatments work.

Cancer biomarkers are biological molecules produced by the body or tumor in a person with cancer. Biomarker testing helps characterize alterations in the tumor. Biomarkers can be DNA, RNA, protein or metabolomic profiles that are specific to the tumor. When a biomarker is identified in a cancer through molecular or genetic testing, it tells the physician what makes the cancer grow and thrive, and that information allows physicians to decide what may be the most effective treatment for the patient. Biomarkers of aging are biomarkers that could predict functional capacity at some later age better than chronological age. Stated another way, biomarkers of aging would give the true biological age which may be different from the chronological age. Biomarkers can serve multiple roles. They can be used as a diagnostic tool for the identification of patients with an abnormal condition or as a tool for staging the extent of disease, as an indicator of disease prognosis, or for the prediction and monitoring of response to an intervention.