Main Achievements

  • Initially ISOBM was founded by pioneers of tumor marker research from USA, Japan, Russia and Europe in 1972.
  • Among them were Prof. Gold (USA) who first described CEA in 1965 as well as Prof. Hirai (Japan) and Prof. Abelev (Russia) who discovered Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) as tumor marker for liver cancer.
  • It was initially named International Society for Oncodevelopmental Biology and Medicine.
  • The identification of new tumor-associated antigens and development of specific immunoassay were main approaches of the initial ISOBM times in the 1970ies.
  • Development and clinical evaluation of hybridoma tumor markers CA 19-9, CA 125, CA 15-3 and CA 72-4, and of cytokeratin tumor markers CYFRA 21-1, TPA and TPS were milestones of the 1980ies and 1990ies.
  • Numerous antibody workshops were performed to compare the characteristics of different antibodies, to improve the antibody performance and promote harmonization of the assays.
  • Clinical validation and improvement of PSA and other kallikreins was a major focus in 1990ies and early 2000 years.
  • ProGRP and HE4 are highly valuable tumor markers that were introduced in the last two decades.
  • Further, nucleic acid biomarkers, stem cells, circulating tumor cells, immunological markers, omics and NGS technologies have gained increasing research interest.
  • Initially named International Society for Oncodevelopmental Biology and Medicine, in 2010 ISOBM was renamed to International Society for Oncology and BioMarkers.
  • In 2014, ISOBM obtained the status of a non-profit organization.
  • „Tumor Biology“ that has developed into one of the leading oncological journals, in 2017 changed the publishing house to SAGE Publishing and became open access.