Translational Gap in Biomarker Discovery: Tumor Surface Markers Rarely Mirror Circulating Levels
Junko Mukohyama, Shohei F Fujita, Xinyi Fu, Shigenori Suzuki, Hiroki Hamamoto, Dai Shida, Kimihiro Yamashita, Kohei Taniguchi, Sang‐Woong Lee, Akihide Yoshimi · 2026
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Description
Mukohyama and co-authors document, in 2026, a translational gap in colorectal cancer biomarker research. Proteins abundant on tumor surfaces often fail to appear in the blood, where a screening test would need them. Using Cancer Genome Atlas data, they found surface markers whose tissue expression differed sharply between tumors with low and high levels of CDX2, a subtype-defining protein. They then measured the same proteins in paired tissue and blood plasma from 81 patients.
Only one marker, CEACAM1, behaved consistently, showing the same CDX2-linked pattern in tumor tissue and in circulating blood. CEACAM5 told the opposite story: its tissue levels and blood levels dissociated, even though its blood measurement was validated against the standard CEA test. The authors argue that selecting biomarker candidates purely for high tumor expression is a misleading strategy, since secretion, processing, and protein production rates all intervene before a marker reaches the bloodstream.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Junko Mukohyama, Shohei F Fujita, Xinyi Fu, Shigenori Suzuki, Hiroki Hamamoto, Dai Shida, Kimihiro Yamashita, Kohei Taniguchi, Sang‐Woong Lee, Akihide Yoshimi |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 30 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |