Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1, ALDH1A1 or RALDH1), an enzyme responsible for the oxidation of intracellular aldehydes, was shown to have a function in the early differentiation of stem cells. Its activity shows promising potential as a universal marker for the identification and isolation of normal stem cells and cancer stem cells from multiple sources in a variety of tissue types. Herein, we review the available data reporting the utilization of ALDH1 activity as a means to identify and isolate normal stem cells and cancer stem cells (CSCs), and the potential diagnostic and therapeutic implications, with a special focus on the mammary gland and breast cancer. The research opportunity in this area of interest is emphasized.
Animals ; Biomarkers ; metabolism ; Biomarkers, Tumor ; metabolism ; Humans ; Isoenzymes ; metabolism ; Neoplastic Stem Cells ; metabolism ; Retinal Dehydrogenase ; metabolism ; Stem Cells ; metabolism

Gastrointestinal cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in China which affects people health seriously. Along with the investigation of the cancer molecular markers and the application of novel target agents, the therapeutic modalities for gastrointestinal cancers have been changing gradually. More and more target drugs, such as trastuzumab, cetuximab, bevacizumab,have been used in clinical practice. The individualized therapy based on the molecular classification will benefit more patients and is the inevitable trend of gastrointestinal cancer treatments in the future.
Biomarkers, Tumor ; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms ; metabolism ; therapy ; Humans ; Precision Medicine

Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the common malignant tumors in China. Esophagectomy based on multi-disciplinary principle improves the quality of life and survival of esophageal cancer patients, but a lot of patients will suffer recurrence or metastasis after surgery. TNM stage is the most important factor which affects the prognosis of patients with esophageal cancer. Besides, there are other prognostic factors, such as abnormal expression of the proteins. Exploration of these proteins may provide new clues to improve prognosis in esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC). We reviewed the literatures related to abnormal protein expression in ESCC, and tried to elucidate the prognostic value and potential clinical application of these proteins in ESCC.
Biomarkers, Tumor ; metabolism ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; metabolism ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; metabolism ; Humans ; Prognosis ; Proteins ; metabolism

Colorectal cancer (CRC) as a common malignancy in the digestive tract, its incidence and mortality increase significantly in China. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are defined as a small fraction of tumor initiating cells that are endowed with both self-renewal and tumor growth potential. They may be responsible for tumor progression, metastasis, relapse and drug-resistance. Therefore, the isolation and characterization of tumorigenic CSCs in CRC may help to devise novel diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. This review briefly discusses the most recent advances in research on colorectal cancer stem cells including definition of the cancer stem cells, origin and specific markers of the colorectal CSCs. Transduction signal pathway involved in CSCs, potential therapeutic strategies targeting CSCs, and current issues in CSCs related research are also discussed.
Biomarkers, Tumor ; metabolism ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Humans ; Neoplastic Stem Cells ; metabolism ; pathology ; Signal Transduction

Prostate specific antigen (PSA) has a wide clinical use for the early detection of prostatic carcinoma (PCa); however, it has never been a perfect marker due to its low specificity and low positive predictive value which ranges between 4 ng/ml and 10 ng/ml. The discovery of different PSA molecular forms in serum in the early 1990s brought insight into searching for more specific markers. Since then free PSA (fPSA) has been used routinely to increase the specificity for PCa and to reduce unnecessary biopsies. More recently, promising data is emerging regarding one proenzyme molecular form of free PSA, proPSA, and a few truncated proPSA isoforms. The purpose of this article is to review the recent studies on clinical utility of proPSA, especially [−2]pPSA, an isoform of proPSA, and parameters involving [−2]pPSA as well as other PSA derivatives in early detection of PCa.
Biomarkers, Tumor ; metabolism ; Humans ; Male ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; metabolism ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; metabolism

BACKGROUNDThe specificity for early interventions of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in prostate cancer (PCa) is not satisfactory. It is likely that prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) can be used to predict biopsy outcomes more accurately than PSA for the early detection of PCa. We systematically reviewed literatures and subsequently performed a meta-analysis.

METHODSA bibliographic search in the database of Embase, Medline, Web of Science, NCBI, PubMed, CNKI, and those of health technology assessment agencies published before April 2013 was conducted. The key words used were "prostatic neoplasms", "prostate", "'prostate', 'carcinoma' or 'cancer' or 'tumor', or 'PCa,'" and free terms of "upm3", "pca3", "dd3", "aptimapca 3", and "prostate cancer antigen 3". All patients were adults. The intervention was detecting PCA3 in urine samples for PCa diagnosis. We checked the quality based on the QUADAS criteria, collected data, and developed a meta-analysis to synthesize results. Twenty-four studies of diagnostic tests with moderate to high quality were selected.

RESULTSThe sensitivity was between 46.9% and 82.3%; specificity was from 55% to 92%; positive predictive value had a range of 39.0%-86.0%; and the negative predictive value was 61.0%-89.7%. The meta-analysis has heterogeneity between studies. The global sensitivity value was 0.82 (95% CI 0.72-0.90); specificity was 0.962 (95% CI 0.73-0.99); positive likelihood ratio was 2.39 (95% CI 2.10-2.71); negative likelihood ratio was 0.51 (95% CI 0.46-0.86); diagnostic odds ratio was 4.89 (95% CI 3.94-6.06); and AUC in SROC curve was 0.744 1.

CONCLUSIONPCA3 can be used for early diagnosis of PCa and to avoid unnecessary biopsies.

Antigens, Neoplasm ; metabolism ; Biomarkers, Tumor ; metabolism ; Biopsy ; Humans ; Male ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; metabolism

Mucin antigen 4 (MUC4) is a molecular marker for some malignant tumors for early tumor diagnosis, prognosis and targeted therapy. It provides a new research direction in tumor diagnosis and treatment that will have a wide application prospect. In recent years, there has been a large number of research reports on the basic and clini-a wide application prospect. In recent years, there has been a large number of research reports on the basic and clinical studies about MUC4, but the molecular imaging study about MUC4 is seldom reported. In this paper the recentcal studies about MUC4, but the molecular imaging study about MUC4 is seldom reported. In this paper the recent research about MUC4 on basic and clinical studies is briefly reviewed, and it is expected to promote the development of tumor molecular imaging.
Biomarkers, Tumor ; metabolism ; Early Diagnosis ; Humans ; Mucin-4 ; metabolism ; Neoplasms ; metabolism ; Prognosis

Biomarkers, Tumor ; metabolism ; Formaldehyde ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; metabolism ; Paraffin Embedding ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism ; Tissue Fixation

Objective: To investigate the expression of cortactin in colorectal cancer and its correlation with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis. Methods: The expressions of cortactin in normal colorectal mucosal tissue and colorectal cancer tissue in paraffin-embedded tissue microarray from 319 patients who were diagnosed as colorectal cancer and treated in Cancer Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences from 2006 to 2009 was detected by immunohistochemistry. Kaplan-Meier method and Log rank test were used for survival analysis, and Cox proportional risk regression model was used for multivariate analysis. Results: The positive expression rates of cortactin in colorectal cancer tissue and normal colorectal mucosal tissue were 61.1% (195/319) and 5.6% (18/319, P<0.001), respectively. T-stage, N-stage, American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage, degree of tumor differentiation, neural invasion and preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels were associated with the expression of cortactin (P<0.05). The positive expression of cortactin was associated with poorer disease-free survival (P=0.036) and overall survival (P=0.043), and the effect was more significant in patients with stage Ⅱ to Ⅲ. For patients with stage Ⅱ-Ⅲ colorectal cancer, postoperative adjuvant therapy was associated with disease-free survival (P=0.007) and overall survival (P=0.015). The vascular tumor embolus, pathological type, preoperative CEA level and cortactin expression were independent influencing factors for disease-free survival (P<0.05). The age, AJCC stage, preoperative CEA level and cortactin expression were independent influencing factors for overall survival (P<0.05). Preoperative CEA level and cortactin expression were independent influencing factors for disease-free survival and overall survival (P<0.05). Conclusion: Cortactin is expressed in colorectal cancer and in stage Ⅱ-Ⅲ patients, it is a potential predictor of colorectal cancer prognosis.
Biomarkers, Tumor/metabolism* ; Carcinoembryonic Antigen/metabolism* ; Colorectal Neoplasms/pathology* ; Cortactin/metabolism* ; Humans ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVETo explore the potential markers of colorectal cancer metastasis and the influence of 5-FU on differentially expressed proteins by using proteomic technology, and to elucidate the mechanism of colorectal cancer metastasis.

METHODSHuman colorectal carcinoma cell lines of different metastatic potential, Lovo and SW480 were conventionally cultured, and the protein was extracted. 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) of 5-FU to these two cell lines was measured by MTT assay. Proteins of these two cell lines after intervention by 5-FU at IC(50) were extracted, then 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis was conducted for the proteins. The differential protein spots were examined by mass spectrometry and analyzed by bioinformatics. Difference of expressed proteins in two cell lines before and after the intervention of 5-FU was validated by Western blot and immunofluorescence.

RESULTSEleven differentially expressed proteins were identified by 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. The hnRNP K protein and PDI were selected to be examined by Western blot and immunofluorescence. Results revealed that the expression of hnRNP K in Lovo was higher than that in SW480, while the expression of PDI was lower in Lovo. After intervention by 5-FU at IC(50), the expression of hnRNP K in Lovo decreased more as compared to SW480, while the expression of PDI in SW480 increased more as compared to Lovo.

CONCLUSIONThere are significant differences in expression of hnRNP K and PDI proteins between Lovo and SW480 cell lines, and the proteins alter regularly after 5-FU intervention.

Biomarkers, Tumor ; blood ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Fluorouracil ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Proteomics