Assay Development for Cancer Biomarkers

Tumour biomarkers are substances produced by cancer or by other cells of the body in response to cancer conditions. They are used to help detect, diagnose, manage and predict outcome or recurrence of some types of cancer. Tumour biomarkers can also help doctors choose the most appropriate therapy or judge if treatment is successful. Several tumour biomarkers are already used in the clinic; however, many others do not meet rigorous scientific standards to enter into clinical practice and some solid cancers can be only detected using tissue biopsy, a rather invasive procedure. Likewise, evaluating efficacy of novel therapies during clinical trials relies on adequate and specific laboratory tests. Therefore novel biomarkers and novel methods, to measure them, still represent an un-met clinical need. This study aims to develop innovative, more sensitive and reliable tests for better targets, in order to assess and monitor circulating cancer biomarkers. Easily accessible samples, like blood, will be tested such that invasive tissue biopsies can be avoided. Both healthy individuals and cancer patients will be recruited in this study to establish if a laboratory test is powerful enough to distinguish between individuals that may have cancer or not. Participants' involvement will also support development of novel tests to decide if a novel therapy is efficiently counteracting cancer growth or not. Participants in the study will be asked to donate blood, sputum, urine or other body fluids, depending on the cancer and the assay being developed. After participants give their informed consent, the researchers will isolate cells, soluble factors or nucleic acids from body fluids. Researchers will then use various laboratory techniques to screen cells, soluble factors or nucleic acids for specific markers. This study looks at the effectiveness of using laboratory tests to quantify tumour markers in body fluids and, subsequently, to monitor patients' response to treatments.

Sex

All

Minimum age

18 Years

Inclusion Criteria:

* Healthy individuals: age of 18 years or over; no history of cancer or chronic inflammatory diseases. No further screening required.
* Cancer patients: age of 18 years or over; diagnosed with documented objective evidence.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Healthy individuals: any current or previous diagnosis of cancer or chronic inflammatory diseases. Inability to give informed consent. History of blood-borne viral disease (HBV, HCV, HIV). Known or suspected anaemia. Pregnancy. Other disease that might make blood donation dangerous to the potential participant.
* Cancer patients: inability to give informed consent. Suffering from severe blood coagulation disorders.