Mucins as Potential Biomarkers for Early Detection of Cancer

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 end...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cancers 2023-03, Vol.15 (6), p.1640
Main Authors: Gautam, Shailendra K, Khan, Parvez, Natarajan, Gopalakrishnan, Atri, Pranita, Aithal, Abhijit, Ganti, Apar K, Batra, Surinder K, Nasser, Mohd W, Jain, Maneesh
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Autoantibodies
Biological markers
Biomarkers
Biopsy
Body fluids
Breast
Breast carcinoma
Cancer
Cancer therapies
Colon
Cytokines
Deregulation
Diagnosis
DNA methylation
Exosomes
Glycoproteins
Glycosylation
Health aspects
Liver
Lung cancer
Lung carcinoma
Malignancy
Medical diagnosis
Medical prognosis
Metabolites
Mortality
Mucin
Mucins
Mutation
Ovarian cancer
Pancreatic cancer
Prostate
Review
Tumors
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Summary: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.
ISSN:2072-6694
2072-6694
DOI:10.3390/cancers15061640