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Cervical cancer is a major gynecological cancer which involves uncontrolled cell division and tissue invasiveness of the female uterine cervix. With the availability of new technologies researchers have increased their efforts to develop novel biomarkers for early diagnosis, and evaluation and monitoring of therapeutic treatments. This approach will help in the development of early diagnosis and in increasing treatment efficacy with decreased recurrence. The present review explains the currently available biomarkers for cervical cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Apart from the currently available biomarkers the review also explains strategies for the development of biomarkers based on cellular and molecular approaches such as DNA, protein and other metabolic markers with suitable clinical examples. The investigations of specific proteins, enzymes and metabolites will establish more useful biomarkers for accurate detection and management of gynecological cancers especially cervical cancer.

Background Survivin and livin are highly expressed in cancer cells and transformed cells, but show little or no expression in normal differentiated tissues. Human antibody responses to tumor-associated antigens have been detected, but little is known about the response to survivin and livin in breast cancer patients. Methods We examined the prevalence of anti-survivin and livin antibodies in breast cancer patients with a specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using recombinant protein. Results Using a cutoff value for positivity determined as the mean absorbance + 2SD for healthy control samples, sera from 11 of 46 breast cancer patients (23.9%) were positive by the ELISA using recombinant survivin protein. Of 46 samples from the same breast cancer patients, 15 (32.6%) were positive for anti-livin antibodies. In addition, 24 (52.2%) were positive for 1 or both ELISAs using the respective proteins. Intensity of anti-livin antibody responses did not correlate with intensity of anti-survivin responses. Conclusions Anti-livin antibodies were detected in sera from breast cancer patients by an anti-livin ELISA using full-length recombinant livin protein. Like survivin, livin may act as a major cancer antigen in breast cancer patients.