TY - JOUR
T1 - Mucins as Potential Biomarkers for Early Detection of Cancer
AU - Gautam, Shailendra K.
AU - Khan, Parvez
AU - Natarajan, Gopalakrishnan
AU - Atri, Pranita
AU - Aithal, Abhijit
AU - Ganti, Apar K.
AU - Batra, Surinder K.
AU - Nasser, Mohd W.
AU - Jain, Maneesh
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.
PY - 2023/3
Y1 - 2023/3
N2 - Early detection significantly correlates with improved survival in cancer patients. So far, a limited number of biomarkers have been validated to diagnose cancers at an early stage. Considering the leading cancer types that contribute to more than 50% of deaths in the USA, we discuss the ongoing endeavors toward early detection of lung, breast, ovarian, colon, prostate, liver, and pancreatic cancers to highlight the significance of mucin glycoproteins in cancer diagnosis. As mucin deregulation is one of the earliest events in most epithelial malignancies following oncogenic transformation, these high-molecular-weight glycoproteins are considered potential candidates for biomarker development. The diagnostic potential of mucins is mainly attributed to their deregulated expression, altered glycosylation, splicing, and ability to induce autoantibodies. Secretory and shed mucins are commonly detected in patients’ sera, body fluids, and tumor biopsies. For instance, CA125, also called MUC16, is one of the biomarkers implemented for the diagnosis of ovarian cancer and is currently being investigated for other malignancies. Similarly, MUC5AC, a secretory mucin, is a potential biomarker for pancreatic cancer. Moreover, anti-mucin autoantibodies and mucin-packaged exosomes have opened new avenues of biomarker development for early cancer diagnosis. In this review, we discuss the diagnostic potential of mucins in epithelial cancers and provide evidence and a rationale for developing a mucin-based biomarker panel for early cancer detection.
AB - Early detection significantly correlates with improved survival in cancer patients. So far, a limited number of biomarkers have been validated to diagnose cancers at an early stage. Considering the leading cancer types that contribute to more than 50% of deaths in the USA, we discuss the ongoing endeavors toward early detection of lung, breast, ovarian, colon, prostate, liver, and pancreatic cancers to highlight the significance of mucin glycoproteins in cancer diagnosis. As mucin deregulation is one of the earliest events in most epithelial malignancies following oncogenic transformation, these high-molecular-weight glycoproteins are considered potential candidates for biomarker development. The diagnostic potential of mucins is mainly attributed to their deregulated expression, altered glycosylation, splicing, and ability to induce autoantibodies. Secretory and shed mucins are commonly detected in patients’ sera, body fluids, and tumor biopsies. For instance, CA125, also called MUC16, is one of the biomarkers implemented for the diagnosis of ovarian cancer and is currently being investigated for other malignancies. Similarly, MUC5AC, a secretory mucin, is a potential biomarker for pancreatic cancer. Moreover, anti-mucin autoantibodies and mucin-packaged exosomes have opened new avenues of biomarker development for early cancer diagnosis. In this review, we discuss the diagnostic potential of mucins in epithelial cancers and provide evidence and a rationale for developing a mucin-based biomarker panel for early cancer detection.
KW - autoantibodies
KW - early cancer detection
KW - exosomes
KW - liquid biopsies
KW - mucin biomarker
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U2 - 10.3390/cancers15061640
DO - 10.3390/cancers15061640
M3 - Review article
C2 - 36980526
AN - SCOPUS:85151681820
SN - 2072-6694
VL - 15
JO - Cancers
JF - Cancers
IS - 6
M1 - 1640
ER -