MCM proteins as diagnostic and prognostic tumor markers in the clinical setting

Abstract

Minichromosome maintenance (MCM)proteins are essential for the process of DNA replication,functioning as license components for the S-phase ofcell-cycle initiation and further exerting weak helicaseactivity to unwind DNA from its supercoiled state atreplication forks. The requirement for MCM proteins incycling cells and their absence in quiescent onessupports evidence for their potential clinical applicationas cell proliferation markers. In the last few years, asidefrom their utility as cell proliferation markers, theassessment of MCM expression levels in diverse humanmalignancies has been the focus of extensive research inan aim to facilitate tumor diagnosis and prognosis inclinical settings. The present article aims to review theavailable data so far concerning the clinical significanceof MCM protein expression in human neoplasia incomparison to conventional proliferative markers. Areview of the literature revealed that MCM expression isassociated with important clinicopathological parametersfor patient management and also exhibits significantdiagnostic and prognostic value in several malignancies.MCMs are characterized by higher specificity andsensitivity than the conventional proliferative markers,such as Ki-67 and PCNA, and are thus considered asdiagnostic and prognostic tools of greater clinicalsignificance in several types of human malignancy.