The sweet and sour of serological glycoprotein tumor biomarker quantification

Table 1 List of common serological tumor markers in clinical use that contain a glycan component^a

Biomarker	Type of detection	Cancer type(s)	Clinical applications	References
AFP	Protein and core fucosylation (for AFP-L3)	Germ-cell hepatoma; non-seminomatous testicular carcinoma	Diagnosis, staging. detecting recurrence, monitoring therapy	[153, 154]
hCG	Protein alone	Testicular	Diagnosis;staging; detecting recurrence; monitoring therapy	[154, 155]
CA125	Protein alone	Ovarian	Prognosis; detecting recurrence; monitoring therapy	[154, 156]
CA15-3	Sialylated O-glycan on MUC1	Breast	Monitoring therapy	[157–159]
CA19-9	SLe on mucin glycoproteins and gangliosidesa	Pancreatic	Monitoring therapy	[160, 161]
CEA	Protein alone	Colon	Detecting recurrence; monitoring therapy	[154, 157, 161]
HER2	Protein alone	Breast	Therapy selection	[157, 162, 163]
PSA	Protein alone	Prostate	Screening; diagnosis (with digital rectal examination)	[154, 164]
Thyroglobulin	Protein alone	Thyroid	Monitoring	[165, 166]
CA27-29	MUC1 protein alone	Breast	Monitoring	[161, 167]

^aModified and adapted from Kulasingam and Diamandis [168]. AFP, alpha-fetoprotein; CA, carcinoma antigen 15-3; CA 19-9, carbohydrate antigen 19-9; CEA, carcinoembryonic antigen; HER, herceptin; hCG, human chorionic gonadotropin; MRM, multiple reaction monitoring; PSA, prostate-specific antigen; SLe, sialyl Lewis antigen.

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