Electrochemical Biosensors for Cancer Biomarkers Detection: Recent Advances and Challenges

Biomarkers are described as characteristics that provide information about biological conditions whether normal or pathological. Detection of biomarkers at the earliest stage of the cancer is of utmost importance for clinical diagnosis. Electrochemical biosensors allow detecting the low levels of specific analytes in blood, urine or saliva and providing a sensitive approach for direct measurement for cancer biomarker detection. Moreover, the integration of electrochemical devices with nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes, gold and magnetic partic les offer amplification and multiplexing capabilities for simultaneous measurements of cancer biomarkers very sensitively. This review summarizes the recent developments of electrochemical biosensors systems for the detection of cancer biomarkers with emphasis on voltammetric, amperometric and impedimetric biosensors. A special attention is paid to aptamers and miRNAs that are very promising for the ultra-sensitive and specific cancer biomarker detection.