Biomarkers are a holy grail for ME/CFS because they have the potential to help diagnose disease, track disease progression or progress and help inform which treatments might help.
The need for biomarkers is immense and researchers will identify many possible ones. It is encouraging that there have been more possible biomarker reports recently. It can be so hard to hold onto hope, and the news of progress helps so many of us hang in there when living with this disease is so tough.
As ME/CFS slowly heads into a new era with increased research, our community should begin to see increasing numbers of biomarker headlines. Yet many people may start to feel quite confused: so many reports, but where is the one true biomarker?
A tale of caution
Each report of a promising new biomarker can lift our spirits very high, only for them to crash down again if the biomarker doesn’t progress. Media headlines can be quite sensational, designed to attract readers and often promising more than the research has delivered. Of course, researchers need to battle for funding dollars, and media attention can help their grant applications so there’s always the temptation to hype their current work.
Over the years many promising biomarkers have been reported, but as yet not one has quite made it to the finishing line. Our team would like to encourage caution as more findings get reported. There is much work and many hoops to jump through before biomarkers can reach the finish line at the doctors’ office.
