Potential and application of abortive transcripts as a novel molecular marker of cancers

Table 3 Enzymatic tumor biomarkers

Biomarker	Alteration	Related tumor	Detection method	Advantage	Disadvantage	Ref.
NSE	Up-regulation	Small cell lung cancer	Blood	The diagnostic sensitivity can reach 80% and the specificity can reach 80%-90%	NSE alone is not sufficient to accurately differentiate SCLC from NSCLC	[63]
ProGRP	Up-regulation	Small cell lung cancer	Blood	High sensitivity and specificity	Insufficiency of kidney function can also lead to elevated ProGRP values	[64]
PAP	Up-regulation	Prostate cancer	Blood	An auxiliary index for tumor grading	Serum PAP may be elevated in some patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia	[65]

NSE: Neuron specific enolase; ProGRP: Gastrin releases peptide precursors; PAP: Prostatic acid phosphatase.