Cancer glycobiomarkers approved for clinical practice, for which aberrant glycoforms have already been reported (these two criteria—approval by official entities and presenting aberrant glycoforms associated with cancer) were used to select the markers to be included in the table)
| Serological glycobiomarker | Cancer type(s) | Altered glycosylation | Type of detection | Clinical applications | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AFP-L3 | Germ-cell hepatoma non-seminomatous Testicular carcinoma | Core fucosylation of AFP-L3 | AFP concentration and AFP-L3 glycoform concentration | Diagnosis Prognosis Staging Recurrence detection Therapy monitoring | [23–34] |
CA15-3 (MUC1) CA27.29 (MUC1) | Breast carcinoma | Increased level of mannosylated N-glycans, sialylated O-glycans, truncated O-glycans (T, Tn, and respective sialylated derivatives) | MUC1 concentration (both assays use different antibodies that recognize diverse epitopes of the protein) | Therapy monitoring | [23–25, 35–37] |
| CA19-9 | Pancreatic carcinoma Colorectal carcinoma Other gastrointestinal cancers, in combination with other biomarkers | Increased expression of SLea | SLea concentration | Therapy monitoring Recurrence detection Tumour burden assessment | [25, 38–44] |
| CA125 (MUC16) | Ovarian carcinoma | Increased expression of truncated O-glycans (Tn, STn, T, ST, and core 2), Lex antigen expression, increased expression of bi-antennary complex-type and high mannose-type N-glycans | MUC16 concentration | Prognosis Recurrence detection Therapy monitoring | [23–25, 45–51] |
| CEA | Colorectal carcinoma Gastric carcinoma Pancreatic carcinoma Breast carcinoma Lung carcinoma | Increased fucosylation and sialylation, increased expression of mannose, Lex, SLex, Ley, and T antigen, increased branched N-glycans | CEA concentration | Staging Prognosis Recurrence detection Therapy monitoring | [23–25, 37, 52–57] |
Total PSA Pro2PSA and free PSA | Prostate carcinoma | Altered fucosylation and sialylation, H2 epitope, increase in GalNAc content, LacdiNAc structure, α2,3-sialic acid on the terminal galactose of N-linked oligosaccharides | Total PSA and free PSA concentration | Screening Diagnosis (with digital rectal examination) Pro2PSA and free PSA are used to discriminate cancer from benign disease | [23–25, 58–61] |
| Tg | Thyroid carcinoma | Increased LCA-reactive Tg, altered sialylation and fucosylation, β1,6-branching of glycans, altered content and structure of poly-LacNAc chains, O-GlcNAcylation | Tg concentration | Therapy monitoring | [23–25, 62–69] |
MUC1: mucin 1; CEA: carcinoembryonic antigen; LCA: Lens culinaris agglutinin; Lex: Lewis x antigen; PSA: prostate-specific antigen; LacdiNAc: GalNAcβ1,4-GlcNAc; Tg: thyroglobulin; LacNAc: N-acetyllactosamine; O-GlcNAcylation: O-linked-N-acetylglucosaminylation
