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"According to the American Cancer Society report, "by 2030, the global cancer burden is expected to nearly double, growing to 21.4 million cases and 13.2 million deaths." Early diagnosis improves treatment efficacy and quality of life as well as reduces the cost for disease management. However, the development of molecular markers for early cancer diagnosis is always a challenge. Some fundamental principles in medical practice are (a) primum non nocere, a Latin phrase that means "first, do no harm," and (b) even when a patient's prognosis is poor, the physician must do his or her best for improving quality of the patient's life. Therefore, noninvasive or minimally invasive cancer diagnostic methods are of choice that can avoid complications of biopsy andother unfavorable impacts on patient's health. In this context, patients' easily collectable biospecimens such as blood, serum, plasma, urine, stool, sputum, saliva, etc., based molecular markers having high specificity and sensitivity in early diagnosisare emerging rapidly and in many instances such markers are also emerging as next-generation prognostic indicators and personalized therapeutics and precision medicine. Several patents have been filed and/or granted on such markers, and a number of health-care companies and authorities currently use or focus on the development of such markers. The significance of clinical validation approaches of several markers has been discussed in different chapters. This book, Cancer Biomarkers: Noninvasive Early Diagnosis and Prognosis, reflects the rapid expansion of important scientific, technological, clinical, and translational aspects of noninvasive or minimally invasive molecular cancer biomarkers and their applications along with other conventional markers"--
