A tumor risk marker is a biomarker which is found in urine, blood, or body tissues. It can be raised by the existence of one or more types of cancer. Today we are going to talk about tumor risk marker and how it will be beneficial for us.

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What is Tumor Risk Marker?

There are some points which justify tumor risk marker:

A tumor marker is a material which is produced by cancer cells of the body in response to cancer or certain kind of noncancerous conditions. Most of the tumor marker is made by normal cells as well as by cancer cells. As they are produced at a much higher level in cancerous conditions.

These substances can be found in the blood, stool, urine, tumor tissue, and other tissues or entirely fluids of some patients with cancer. The most tumor marker is proteins.

There is some restriction to the use of tumor marker. Sometimes, noncancerous conditions cause the levels of certain tumor marker to increase. Tumor marker has not been identified for every type of cancer.

Tumor Risk Marker Used in Cancer Care?

There are a few uses :

Tumor marker usually helps to detect, diagnose, and manage some types of tumor. Although an elevated level of a tumor marker suggests the presence of a tumor, this alone is not enough to diagnose cancer. Therefore, measurement of tumor marker is mainly combined with other tests, like- biopsies, to diagnose cancer.

Tumor marker levels are measured before treatment. In some types of cancer, the level of a tumor marker reflects the stage of the disease and the patient’s prognosis.

Tumor marker also is measured periodically during cancer therapy. A reduce in the level of a tumor marker or a return to the marker’s normal level indicates that the cancer is responding to treatment.

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Advantages of Tumor Marker

1. Screening and Early Detection of Cancer

It refers to looking for cancer in people who have no symptoms, while early detection is finding cancer at an early stage. Although tumor marker was first developed to test for cancer in people without symptoms, some tumor marker has been found to be helpful in this way because most tumor markers have not been shown to detect cancer much earlier than they would have been found otherwise.

2. Aid in the Diagnosis of Cancer

In some cases, cancer can only be diagnosed by a biopsy and a tumor marker is usually not used to diagnose cancer. Although, tumor marker can help to determine if a cancer is likely in some patients. It can also help to diagnose the origin of cancer in patients presenting with advanced widespread disease.

Disadvantages of Tumor Marker

Being able to reason diagnostic patterns which are totally unique to specific cancer states is a challenge because of the biological variability in an individual patient’s sample, as well as the vast range of biomarker concentrations in all patients compared.

There are differences in sample collection, handling, storage, and profiling techniques among various research sites which may change the protein profile obtained from a given sample. Therefore, standardization issues regarding biological variation, preanalytical variables, and analytical variability must be tackled before standard values can be established.

How Tumor Risk Marker Measures?

The specialist takes a sample of cancer tissue which is entirely fluid and sends it to a laboratory, where various methods are used to measure the level of the tumor marker.

If the tumor marker is being used to control whether treatment is working or whether there is a recurrence, the marker’s level will be measured in multiple samples taken over time.

Conclusion:

As per the discussion of tumor risk marker, it is basically used to detect cancer. Cancer is a dangerous disease which should be treated before the condition becomes worst to avoid future complications. It is advised to consult the trusted doctor for the treatment.

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