Aberrant glycan epitopes are a classic hallmark of malignant transformation, yet their full clinical potential in cancer diagnostics and therapeutics is yet to be realized. This is partly because our understanding of how these epitopes are regulated remains poorly understood. In this review cancer glycan epitopes for the major glycan classes are summarized with a focus on their biosynthesis, structure and role in cancer progression. Their application as cancer biomarkers, in particular the more recent work on cancer glycoforms, and the advantages these offer over the glycan or protein alone are discussed. Finally, emerging concepts which expand on the current view of the cancer glycan epitope beyond the single structure, to patterns and the whole glycocalyx, are described. These new approaches that consider the cancer glycan epitope as a glycoform, or as a pattern of many epitope structures, are providing new targets both for cancer biomarkers and therapeutics currently in development at the bench and the clinic.

中文翻译：

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癌症聚糖表位：生物合成，结构和功能

异常的聚糖表位是恶性转化的经典标志，但它们在癌症诊断和治疗中的全部临床潜力尚待实现。部分原因是因为我们对如何调节这些表位的理解仍然知之甚少。在这篇综述中，对主要聚糖类别的癌症聚糖表位进行了总结，重点是它们的生物合成，结构和在癌症进展中的作用。讨论了它们作为癌症生物标志物的应用，尤其是有关癌症糖型的最新研究，以及它们相对于单独的聚糖或蛋白质所提供的优势。最后，描述了新兴的概念，其在癌症聚糖表位的当前观点上扩展到了从单一结构到模式和整个糖萼。这些将癌症聚糖表位视为糖型的新方法，