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In the early days, biomarkers were used primarily as physiological indicators for blood pressure or heart rate, as examples. A biomarker is an objective indication of a particular medical state observed from outside the patient, which can be measured accurately and reproducibly.
More recently, biomarkers, such as elevated prostate specific antigen, can be used as a molecular biomarker for prostate cancer or enzyme assays used as liver function tests. A biomarker is anything that can be used as an indicator of a disease state or some other physiological state of an organism.
According to Strimbu and Jorge, the use of biomarkers in basic and clinical research, as well as in clinical practice, has become so commonplace that their presence as primary endpoints in clinical trials is now accepted almost without question (1).
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