Elements in trace amount with a significant role in human physiology: a tumor pathophysiological and diagnostic aspects

Abstract

Cancer has a devastating impact globally regardless of gender, age, and community, which continues its severity to the population due to the lack of efficient strategy for the cancer diagnosis and treatment. According to the World Health Organisation report, one out of six people dies due to this deadly cancer and we need effective strategies to regulate it. In this context, trace element has a very hidden and unexplored role and require more attention from investigators. The variation in concentration of trace elements was observed during comparative studies on a cancer patient and a healthy person making them an effective target for cancer regulation. The percentage of trace elements present in the human body depends on environmental exposure, food habits, and habitats and could be instrumental in the early diagnosis of cancer. In this review, we have conducted inclusive analytics on trace elements associated with the various types of cancers and explored the several methods involved in their analysis. Further, intricacies in the correlation of trace elements with prominent cancers like prostate cancer, breast cancer, and leukaemia are represented in this review. This comprehensive information on trace elements proposes their role during cancer and as biomarkers in cancer diagnosis.

Keywords:

• Trace elements
• cancer
• detection
• carcinogenic
• diagnosis

Author contributions

MD has designed, conceptualised the work, and performed final editing. SH, DJ, SJ, and PK have done the literature survey and initial review writing. MD and SH have performed review proofreading.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Code availability statement

Not applicable.

Data availability statement

Not applicable.

Additional information

Funding

MD acknowledge the DST-INSPIRE Faculty Award, 2017 (IFA17-LSPA82).