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Use our cancer immunohistochemistry (IHC) guide to biomarkers to select the right biomarker and the best IHC antibody for your research.
Download the complete Cancer biomarkers guide here.
Updated June 30, 2023
Overview
The impact of cancer biomarkers on the progression and implementation of cancer research has been vast. Cancer biomarkers play a pivotal role in research, from identifying new biomarkers for improved diagnostics and drug development to validating biomarkers across cancer types and stages or prioritizing targets for translation to preclinical research. Biomarkers have become central to targeted drug development and patient segmentation, with clinical trials incorporating biomarkers being more likely to succeed than those without biomarkers1. Continuing research in this field offers hope for new biomarkers and increased validation and applications of current biomarkers to improve diagnostics and therapeutics for all cancer types. View our video below to find out more.
Download a pdf version of this guide here.
Immunohistochemistry in cancer biomarker research
IHC is a hugely popular tool in cancer research and remains the gold standard in clinical cancer diagnostics. Each type of cancer is associated with specific protein biomarkers that can be identified via IHC to offer a powerful tool for investigating tumor development and responses. Using this technique, researchers can identify the histogenesis of tumors, stage tumors, predict tumor prognosis, and predict and monitor therapeutic response. Knowing the utilities and pitfalls of each tumor-associated biomarker is essential to avoid potential diagnostic errors, as no absolutely cancer-specific biomarker exists.
These tests can be run quickly, easily, and at a low cost compared to other diagnostic methods. IHC is thus a robust and reliable technique and, with a good panel of specific biomarkers, is ideal for rapid clinical diagnosis.
Whatever cancer type you are interested in, an essential starting point is the use of a sensitive, specific, and consistent IHC antibody. Antibody validation is key to ensuring antibody specificity and reproducibility. We use a variety of experimental applications to validate our antibodies, including IHC, and many of the antibodies on our catalog will state that they are suitable for use in IHC.
For consistent results between your IHC experiments and to ensure the long-term viability of your research, we recommend using an antibody generated using recombinant technology (ie, recombinant antibodies). These antibodies are developed in vitro and do not rely on an animal’s immune system for production, meaning that batch-to-batch, they deliver consistency of performance.
In this guide, we have included a number of the most common cancer types: breast, lung, colorectal, prostate, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer, and a range of emerging and approved biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic monitoring.
Here you can find the right biomarker for your research and select the most highly recommended antibody for use in IHC.
Header image credit: Detecting cancer in human tissues, LM. Credit: Aamir Ahmed, Jane Pendjiky and Michael Millar. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)