Prognostic and Predictive Biomarkers

Despite tremendous progress in screening, diagnosis, and treatment, cancer continues to be a major public health problem and a signifi cant cause of morbidity and mortality. Death due to cancer is the second most common cause of mortality and accounts for nearly 25% of all deaths in the United States. In 2015, 1, 658, 370 new cases of cancer and 589, 430 cancer deaths are projected tooccur in the United States alone. Cancer is anticipated to surpass heart disease as the leading cause of death in the coming years (1). Given these facts, there has been growing emphasis on the prevention and early detection of cancer as well as novel cancer treatments. However, even with a focus on preventive strategies and the implementation of novel therapeutics, many cancers continue tobe diagnosed at late stages when treatments are generally less effective. Given the scope of this problem, there is great interest in the development, validation, and use of cancer biomarkers as a means to help lessen the cancer burden. The emergence of several new technologies has created new platforms for the discovery of novel cancer biomarkers.