Biomarkers in pediatrics: children as biomarker orphans.
Biomarkers have enormous potential to improve patient care by establishing tests of diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment effects. Successfully translating a biomarker from discovery to clinical application demands high-quality discovery research and high-quality clinical studies for biomarker validation; however, there are additional challenges that face biomarker research in pediatrics. There are also additional characteristics of pediatric medicine that make biomarker research especially needed. This review focuses on the fundamentals of biomarkers, the additional considerations needed for applying biomarker research to children, and recommendations for advancing pediatric biomarker research.
Division of Transfusion Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. Wsavage1@jhmi.edu
William J
WJ
Savage
Allen D
AD
Everett
D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis*; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000592:standards; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015997:Neonatal Screening; D011379:Prognosis; D012016:Reference Values
D015415:Biomarkers