Short Communication - (2021) Volume 11, Issue 4
Introduction
Biomarkers and diagnostics are essential components in diagnosing a disease or pathogenic process, monitoring patients during care, and determining patient response to an exposure or therapy.
Biomarkers and diagnostics are used in precision medicine to predict and track patient response to therapies, or to classify various sub-populations of patients that are most likely to benefit from pre-determined treatments [1].
Biomarkers?
Biological Marker is characterised as "a defined characteristic that's calculated as an indicator of normal biological processes, pathogenic processes, or responses to an exposure or intervention, including therapeutic interventions," consistent with the FDA and NIH.
Any biological indicator that can be tested can be used as a biomarker. Biomarkers, for example, may be cellular or molecular (DNA, RNA, protein, metabolites). A tissue biopsy or a liquid biopsy (blood, urine, saliva...) is used to determine them. Other biomarkers (physiological, morphological, and so on) may also be measured or used for clinical or diagnostic imaging [2].
Biomarkers may be quantitative or qualitative in nature
In a yes/no study, qualitative biomarkers can be used to detect pathogenic processes, while quantitative biomarkers are used to detect pathogenic processes with a threshold impact. Biomarkers are used in clinical practice and research for the following reasons:
Biomarkers to develop Diagnostics
Biomarkers are used in the majority of diagnostics. Biomarkers are the foundation of all in-vitro diagnostics.
The detection of one or more biomarkers associated with a normal biological process or a pathogenic one, or with the patient response to a predetermined treatment, is the first step in diagnostic growth [3].
Clinical validation of biological, physiological, or morphological markers will decide the marker (or combination of markers) is accurate, appropriate, and precise for measuring a predetermined process or a patient's response to therapy.
Molecular biology using genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, or metabolomic biomarkers aids in the development of precise diagnostics, especially in precision medicine. To predict disease course, track disease evolution, identify different sub-populations of patients, and predict and monitor patient response to most therapies, this precision medicine domain necessitates the identification and clinical confirmation of a large number of biomarkers.
To predict disease course, track disease evolution, identify different sub-populations of patients, and predict and monitor patient response to most therapies, this precision medicine domain necessitates the identification and clinical confirmation of a large number of biomarkers.
The creation and commercialization of new diagnostics is needed in a number of other medical fields. As a result, a number of treatments, such as those for pancreatic cancer or Alzheimer's disease, also require the detection of particular biomarkers in order to determine a pathological biological method.
Furthermore, diagnosis of certain pathologies (solid tumours, for example) would be more tolerated or conducted if biomarkers from liquid biopsies (blood, urine, saliva...) could be used.
Biomarkers in everyday life: a daunting goal to achieve
Diagnostic tests are often used by doctors to help them clarify and endorse their clinical decisions. In recent years, the need to pre-select patients based on drug names or classifications has become increasingly important in the diagnostic process. This shift has occurred due to a variety of reasons, including advancements in technology (allowing us to quantify more precise efficacy markers),
This decision is often influenced by social factors, the most important of which is the need to limit tailored treatments to those patients that are most likely to benefit. The so-called "one-size-fits-all" medical solution is being phased out with the advent of precision medicine.
Personalized medicine's basic promise is that disease diagnosis and care can become simpler, cheaper, more reliable, and more effective.
The emerging interests of payers in ensuring that medications are prescribed to the correct patients would almost certainly form the future environment of diagnostics and medication regimens.
Indeed, navigating regulatory affairs to get from biomarkers to diagnostics used in clinical practice is a major challenge. Thousands of candidate biomarkers for detection and prognostication have been developed as a result of genomic approaches to many malignancies, but only a few have been known in clinical practice due to a lack of clinically validated outcomes...
The challenge of cancer biomarkers in clinical practice
There is a transition in cancer care from traditional clinical methods to new approaches. Traditionally, cancer patients were treated with low-toxicity or high-tolerance medications, regardless of effectiveness in a specific patient, if the drug's benefits had been shown in both experimental and clinical settings. Recent developments in basic and clinical science, on the other hand, have opened up new possibilities [4].
These new approaches aim to identify individualised patient benefits from treatments, reduce toxicity risks, and lower care costs.
In the field of oncology, the advancement of dedicated diagnostics to direct the use of targeted therapies has the potential to enhance clinical outcomes and minimise toxicity for many patients. The promise of cancer biomarkers is demonstrated by the recent advent of biomarker strategies for treatment selection and monitoring.
The FDA currently lists 32 valid biomarkers across a wide range of therapeutic fields, with cancer being the most common.
Conclusion
The challenges as well as the benefits of using biomarkers in cancer treatment appear to be enormous. A patient's disease must be monitored in an efficient and reliable way in order to enable the requisite improvements in cancer care.
Citation: Srinitha, B. Biomarkers and Disease Diagnosis. Prim Health Care, 2021, 11(4), 375
Published: 30-Apr-2021, DOI: 10.35248/2167-1079.21.11.375
Copyright: © 2021 Srinitha B. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.