Biosensor-based diagnostic approaches for various cellular biomarkers of breast cancer: A comprehensive review

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer among women which leads to thousands of deaths worldwide. The chances of survival are more if the breast cancer is diagnosed at early stage. At present, mammography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound and tissue biopsies are the main diagnostic techniques available for the detection of breast cancer. However, despite of offering promising results, requirement of expensive setup, skilled supervision, expert analysis, invasive procedure (biopsy) and low capacity of multiplexing are the main limitations of these diagnostic techniques. Due to high cost, these screening tests are out of reach of people belonging to low socioeconomic groups and this poses serious health burden to the society. Recently, biosensor-based diagnostic technology for early detection of various types of cancers and other non-oncological disorders have gained considerable attention because of their several advantageous features over existing diagnostic technologies such as high throughput, noninvasive nature, cost effectiveness, easy interpretable results and capacity for multiplexing. Further, biosensors can be designed for biomarkers which are confined to particular type of cancer. In this review, we have discussed about various genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic biomarkers associated with breast cancer, various biosensors-based diagnostic approaches designed for detection of specific biomarkers associated with breast cancer are also described. Further, this review throws insight on various biomarkers linked with breast cancer which can be effectively exploited to develop new diagnostic technology. The assessment of these biomarkers associated with BC using biosensors in large population are cost-effective, non-invasive and high throughput. They help in risk assessment of disease at very initial stage even in backward areas and also help to lower the disease burden of society and economic cost of treatment for a common man. This review would provide new avenues for the development of biosensor based diagnostic technology for the detection of biomarkers associated with breast cancer.

Keywords: Biosensor; Breast cancer; Breast cancer biomarkers; Electrochemical; Microfluidics; Optical.