Glycans as a Target in the Detection of Reproductive Tract Cancers

The significance of changes in glycosylation for the beginning, progress and outcome of different human diseases is highly recognized. In this review we summarized literature data on the alteration of glycans in cancer, especially glycoforms of tumor markers of reproductive tract cancers: prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and cancer antigen 125 (CA125). We aimed to highlight the diagnostic potential and relevance of glycan microheterogeneity and to present some novel methods for cancer detection. A computerized search of articles published up to 2007 was performed through the PubMed database. Search terms utilized included prostate/ovarian cancer glycosylation, prostate/ovarian cancer detection, PSA/CA125 glycosylation. Additional sources were identified through cross-referencing and researching in available biomedical books. The comparative studies of sugar chain structures of the PSA and CA125 indicated specific structural alterations associated with malignant transformation, in relation to glycan branching, sialylation and fucosylation. These glycan modifications should be better in distinguishing between benign and malignant conditions than the measurement of marker concentrations alone, which is widely used in practice. Cancer-associated changes in the glycosylation could yield more sensitive and discriminative diagnostic tests for reproductive tract cancer detection, i.e. for improvement of the clinical utility of known tumor markers or the discovery of new ones. Poznat je značaj promena glikozilacije za nastanak, razvoj i ishod različitih bolesti. U ovom radu sumirani su podaci iz literature o promenama glikana kod kancera, posebno glikoformi tumorskih markera kancera reproduktivnog trakta: specifičnog antigena prostate (PSA) i kancerskog antigena 125 (CA125). Cilj ovog rada je da se naglase dijagnostički potencijal i značaj mikroheterogenosti glikana kao i da se prezentuju neke nove metode za detekciju kancera. Izvršena je pretraga radova objavljenih do 2007. godine u bazi podataka PubMed, pomoću termina > prostate/ovarian cancer glycosylationprostate/ovarian cancer detectionPSA/CA125 glycosylation