The best strategy to deal with tumor is early diagnosis, which can increase the cure rate to 83%. The most effective method for early diagnosis of tumor is to find tumor markers in body fluid, especially protein markers. Malignant tumor is a major disease threatening human life and health. Although the treatment of tumor has made great progress through the efforts of scientists and clinicians, the high mortality has not been effectively controlled. According to the latest cancer incidence rate data from the National Cancer Center (the cancer registry of 31 provinces and autonomous regions in 2017) collected from the National Cancer Registry in 2017, the number of new cases of malignant tumors in the country is 3 million 804 thousand. The standardized incidence rate is 174.0/10 million, which is slightly lower than the world average of 182.3/10 million. However, the incidence of cancer in China accounts for about 22% of the world, and the number of patients is the first in the world. There are more than 2 million cancer deaths in China, accounting for about 27% of the world. The standardized mortality rate is 122.2/100000, higher than the world average of 102.4/100000. Due to the lack of early screening for cancer and late treatment time, the 5. Year survival rate of cancer in China is only 30.9%, compared with more than 70% in developed countries. The complex pathogenesis of tumor, few effective screening technologies and low level of early diagnosis technology lead to the late detection of tumor, which makes the situation of tumor prevention in China severe. Tumor markers are a kind of substances that change abnormally due to the expression of related genes or collective response to tumor in the process of tumor cell occurrence, proliferation, metastasis or recurrence. Tumor markers have been discovered for more than 100 years. Since the 1960s, they have been widely used in clinic and played an important role in tumor discovery and treatment. With the development of biotechnology, various new markers have been found gradually, and the specificity and sensitivity have been improved. According to clinical evaluation criteria, tumor markers should have the following characteristics:
(1) It must be produced by malignant tumor cells and can be detected in blood, tissue fluid, secretory fluid or tumor tissue;
(2) In normal tissues or benign tumors, the content is low;
(3) Tumor markers of a tumor can be detected in most patients with the tumor;
(4) It can be detected before there is no definite tumor diagnosis in clinic;
(5) The amount of tumor markers can reflect the size of the tumor; (6) To some extent, it can help to estimate the therapeutic effect and predict the recurrence and metastasis of tumor.