A tumormarker-kutatás rövid története. A PSA, mint legismertebb urológiai tumormarker felfedezésének története

Abstract

There are a number of tumour markers available today enabling the early detection of malignancies thus saving the lives of many thousands of people worldwide. By definition, tumour markers are substances in tissues, blood, bone marrow or other body fluids that appear in cancer patients’ samples or are present at significantly elevated levels compared to normal conditions. The first marker of malignant disease in modern medicine was identified in 1846 by the English physician-chemist Henry Bence-Jones. Yet, at that time, of course, he was not aware that the protein (named as Bence-Jones) he discovered, was a pathogenic indicator of multiple myeloma. The classic era of tumour markers started in the 1960s with the discovery of two leading oncofetal antigens, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). AFP was published in 1944 by Swedish scientist Kai O. Pedersen, while the discovery of CEA is associated with two Canadian physicians, Phil Gold and Samuel O. Freedman. One of the most widely known tumour markers indicating prostate cancer is the prostate-specific antigen or PSA. The discovery of PSA as a clinically useful marker of prostate cancer and its translation into clinical practice can be attributed to Ming C. Wang, who described the molecule in 1979. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved PSA in 1986 as a molecule for monitoring the disease, and in 1994 it licenced the measuring of PSA levels as a screening test, thus facilitating the early detection of prostate cancer and enabling more effective treatment.