Urgent need to develop independent biomarkers for functional, diagnostic and prognostic application in oncology research

“The current drive to discover novel biomarkers that detect early cancers and accurately predict their behavioral phenotype is predicated on the notion that malignancies arise from genetic changes that can be identified, either directly or indirectly, through their corresponding encoded proteins.” Novel biomarkers are required to detect and classify cancers, to direct clinical management and to monitor the effects of therapy by defining phenotypic modulation subsequent to therapeutic intervention. This urgent need for biomarker development has been promoted by two factors. First, an understanding that malignant diseases of apparently similar type are phenotypically heterogeneous and, therefore, no single management strategy...