Health & Information

What is cytokeratins?

Jun 12, 2018

Cancer affects everyone – the young and old, the rich and poor, men, women and children – and represents a tremendous burden on patients, families and societies. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world.

Normal cells are constantly dividing, but in cancer, abnormal cell growth occurs. This causes the protein cytokeratin to leak out which can be measured with efficient diagnostic tools. Thanks to modern technology, IDL can quickly diagnose several kinds of cancer in a non-invasive and pain free manner.

All IDL tumor marker assays are designed to measure tumor cell activity through the detection of soluble fragments of cytokeratins, the intermediate filament proteins that contribute to the mechanical integrity of the epithelial cells. The benefit of determining cytokeratin levels in the body lies both in early detection of cancer recurrence, and in the early assessment of therapy response.