[Malignancy potential of precursor lesions: determination using molecular markers].

Early detection is the best prognosis in the curative treatment of oncologic diseases. During early detection tissue is collected which resembles precursor lesions. Based on these lesions a risk for progression for an individual patient should be given. Therefore, prognostic biomarkers are necessary but unfortunately there are not so many prognostic biomarkers known. Among these is the detection of an HPV (human papillomavirus) infection in the case of cervical carcinomas or the expression of the cell cycle inhibitor p16(INK4a). Human papillomaviruses are oncogenic DNA viruses, which represent the driving force of almost all cervical carcinomas and p16(INK4a) is an indicator of a premalignant state of epithelial cells which is known as oncogen-induced senescence (OIS). The epithelial cells are in an instable state which collapses in practically all cases, and leads to the progression of tumors. But also for later forms of neoplasia prognostic markers which have proven to be relevant in the daily routine are hardly known. A possible cause might be found in the complexity of the pathogenesis of solid tumors which is associated with a variety of functionally different subtypes. The knowledge of these subgroups should help to define biomarker signatures which might be used for the definition of precursor lesions.