Biomarkers for differential diagnosis and prognosis

Question 1

what conditions do these biomarkers screen for:

FOBT, PSA, CA125, VMA/HVA, AFP, pepsinogen, HCG

Answer 1

FOBT=colorectal cancer, PSA=prostate, CA125=ovarian cancer, VMA/HVA=neuroblastoma, AFP=hepatocellular carcinoma, pepsinogen=gastric cancer, HCG=trophoblastic disease

Question 2

why is screening for CRC using FOBT better than colonoscopy?

Answer 2

colonoscopy is invasive

Question 3

why is PSA screening critiqued?

Answer 3

Leads to overdiagnosis=people being diagnosed with a cancer that would never cause symptoms or shorten life expectancy and overtreatment=people being treated unnecessarily for tumours that would unlikely be harmful eg chemo/radiotherapy side effects or having a prostatectomy

Question 4

Apart from prostate cancer when else does PSA increase?

Answer 4

prostatitis, benign prostatic hyperplasia

Question 5

2 ways ovarian cancer can be screened

Answer 5

CA125 blood test or transvaginal ultrasound

Question 6

When else is CA125 increased apart from CA125?

Answer 6

liver cirrhosis, colorectal cancer, endometrial cancer

Question 7

oncotype dx is for assessing prognosis in which breast cancer patients and why?

Answer 7

ER + and lymph node negative breast cancer patients. used to find out the recurrence score so that indolent cancers aren’t treated with chemo so patient is spared of side effects

Question 8

What glycoprotein can be measured for the recurrence of colorectal cancer?

Answer 8

carcinoembryonic antigen