Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29872704›Full record

ArticleNPJ precision oncology2017

Towards personalized tumor markers.

Vathany Kulasingam, Ioannis Prassas, Eleftherios P Diamandis

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in NPJ precision oncology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
13citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

13 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Rethinking biomarkers in psychiatry: from etiological uncertainty to actionable prediction.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Vathany Kulasingam1Department of Clinical Biochemistry, University Health Network, Toronto, ON Canada.
Ioannis Prassas3Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON Canada.
Eleftherios P Diamandis1Department of Clinical Biochemistry, University Health Network, Toronto, ON Canada.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The cancer biomarker discovery pipeline is progressing slowly. The difficulties of finding novel and effective biomarkers for diagnosis and management of cancer patients are well-known. We speculate that it is unlikely to discover new serological biomarkers characterized by high sensitivity and specificity. This projection is supported by recent findings that cancers are genetically highly heterogeneous. Here, we propose a new way of improving the landscape of cancer biomarker research. There are currently hundreds, if not thousands, of described biomarkers which perform at high specificity (> 90%), but at relatively low sensitivity (< 30%). We call these "rare tumor markers." Borrowing from the principles of precision medicine, we advocate that among these low sensitivity markers, some may be useful to specific patients. We suggest screening new patients for hundreds to thousands of cancer biomarkers to identify a few that are informative, and then use them clinically. This is similar to what we currently do with genomics to identify personalized therapies. We further suggest that this approach may explain as to why some biomarkers are elevated in only a small group of patients. It is likely that these differences in expression are linked to specific genomic alterations, which could then be found with genomic sequencing.

Identifiers

PMID29872704
PMCPMC5871887

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.