Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Abbreviations: mRNA, messenger RNA; MiRNA, micrornas; ctDNA, cell tumoral DNA; POC, point of care Introduction Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and was responsible for 8.8 million deaths in 2015. Globally, nearly one in six deaths is due to cancer. 1 Cancer is a genetic disease where genetics and epigenetics changes can occur, these changes guide to altered gene or protein expression or altered protein composition of cells resulting in alteration of the cycle and cell growth which translates in tumoral phenotypes. Environmental factors (such as diet, lifestyle and exposure to ultraviolet radiation or carcinogenic pollutants) play a major role in the development of some cancer. Genetic changes and environmental factors interact to infuence tumor development. 2 Biomarkers and biosensor take advantage of this characteristic of cancer cell to detect certain molecules like DNA, DNA modifcations, RNA, proteins or protein modifcations or other biological molecules produce by the tumor itself or by the cells around the tumor in response to the presence of cancer. Early detection in cancer is crucial to give an appropriate treatment and to get better outcomes in near and long time in the patients. Biomarkers and biosensors have shown different interesting results on the cancer detection, monitoring and therapy response highlighting the minimally invasive or non-invasive collection of samples. Thus, for example, biomarkers based on protein like CA 15–3 for detection of breast cancer and CA 125 for recurrence of ovarian cancer, or more recently biomarkers in reference to epigenetic changes of gene methylation in breast and ovarian cancer. 3 In the case of carcinoma Hepatocellular, the epigenetic modifcations of the gene promoter that involved the synthesis of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors p15, p16 and RASSF1A, represent potentially valuable biomarkers for the early and preclinical diagnosis. 4 The last approximation cancer SEEK, which combine genetic markers and protein markers for detection up to fve different types of cancer (ovary, liver, stomach, pancreas and esophagus), and estimate the origin of tumor cells in a signifcant proportion of cases. 5 Additionally, have been studied miRNA, markers with better capacity to predict cancer than DNA or mRNA since a single molecule of miRNA has the capacity to regulate more than one hundred mRNA, with which they have orders of magnitude much greater in terms of the information about the prognosis that they provide us. Currently different molecular biology tools had permitted to develop molecular tumor signatures based on mRNA , miRNA and DNA 6 that can help in tumor classifcation, subtype and ability to respond to certain therapies nowadays several of these are used in clinical practice. 7 Biomarkers based on proteins (protein biomarkers), have certain disadvantages over genomic markers. In the studies carried out by Dawson and Bettegowda show that circulating DNA might perform better than the protein biomarkers; being ctDNA more sensitive than protein biomarkers when it comes to detecting breast 8 and bowel cancer, 9 respectively. Although protein biomarkers are used in the clinical practice, it can present false positives because there are other reasons that it can be elevated in the blood. Contrary false positives are rarer with ctDNA because it is defned by mutations and other genomic changes that are hallmarks of cancer cells specifc to time and space. 10 Other important disadvantage of biomarker in cancer detection is the use of single markers while in some cases is specifcs; in others, it may not detect the variability of disease through the population, which lowers accuracy, sensitivity and specifcity. Therefore, the results published should be validated in other patient samples, in order to detect the sensitivity of the detection and quantifcation based on body fuids studied. The common techniques to detect biomarkers are based on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or even wasteful technique such as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) specifc of histone change or bisulfte modifcation sequencing. These have technological limitations like slow detection and expensive reagents in every trial. 11 For this reason, biosensors play an important role in biomarker detection. Biosensors are designed to detect a specifc biological analyte by essentially converting a biological molecule (ie, protein, DNA, RNA) into an electrical signal that can be detected and analyzed. 12 Int J Biosen Bioelectron. 2018;4(1):20‒21 20 © 2018 Beltrán et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. DNA biosensors and biomarkers to cancer detection Volume 4 Issue 1 - 2018 Angela P Beltrán, 1, 2 Mary García 1 1 Pontifcia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia 2 Colscience Institute, Colombia Correspondence: Angela Patricia Beltrán Lopez, Pontifcia Universidad Javeriana, Human Genetic Institute, Carrera 7# 40- 62, Bogotá, Colombia, Tel +5713208320, Ext 2787, Email angelapbeltran@unal.edu.co Received: February 09, 2018 | Published: February 15, 2018 Abstract Cancer is the leading cause of mortality in the worldwide, with around 8.8 million deaths in 2015 in accordance with World of Health organization (WHO). 1 For this reason, this disease has a particular research interest in order to reduce the prevalence and mortality rates. Biomarkers in cancer provide a powerful approach to understand this complex disease as well as giving the possibility of timely diagnosis in a non- invasive way and it has different applications in epidemiology, diagnosis, progression and prognosis. At the other side, the Biosensors are instrument employing biological recognition properties for a selective bio-analysis and converts the molecular recognition signal to an electrical signal. Both technologies can support each one; biosensors can discover new biomarkers and biomarkers that drive the construction of new biosensors. This opinion will briefly summarize the “pros and cons” of this technologies to cancer detection, follow up and prognosis. Keywords: cancer, biomarkers, biosensors, detection International Journal of Biosensors & Bioelectronics Opinion Open Access