Proteomics biomarkers for solid tumors: Current status and future prospects

Abstract

Cancer is a heterogeneous multifactorial disease, which continues to be one of the main causes of death worldwide. Despite the extensive efforts for establishing accurate diagnostic assays and efficient therapeutic schemes, disease prevalence is on the rise, in part, however, also due to improved early detection. For years, studies were focused on genomics and transcriptomics, aiming at the discovery of new tests with diagnostic or prognostic potential. However, cancer phenotypic characteristics seem most likely to be a direct reflection of changes in protein metabolism and function, which are also the targets of most drugs. Investigations at the protein level are therefore advantageous particularly in the case of in-depth characterization of tumor progression and invasiveness. Innovative high-throughput proteomic technologies are available to accurately evaluate cancer formation and progression and to investigate the functional role of key proteins in cancer. Employing these new highly sensitive proteomic technologies, cancer biomarkers may be detectable that contribute to diagnosis and guide curative treatment when still possible. In this review, the recent advances in proteomic biomarker research in cancer are outlined, with special emphasis placed on the identification of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for solid tumors. In view of the increasing number of screening programs and clinical trials investigating new treatment options, we discuss the molecular connections of the biomarkers as well as their potential as clinically useful tools for diagnosis, risk stratification and therapy monitoring of solid tumors.

Decreased expression of Insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 and its death receptor in association with poor prognosis of the patients with gastric cancer

“…Proteomics study around the protein biomarkers has indicated that some proteins might serve as the potential prognostic biomarker (19)(20)(21). It has been revealed that IGFBPs, specifically IGFBP-3, could be considered as a potential prognostic biomarker (22)(23)(24).…”

Inflammation as a Driver of Vulvar Squamous Cell Carcinoma Progression.

“…Global techniques, such as iTRAQ, need to be systematically veri ed by proteomic experiments with more sensitive, accurate and cost-effective methods of quantifying proteins in larger sample sets, such as the targeted method of PRM [8]. To verify our DEPs we employed PRM which has lately been shown to be highly speci c [9].…”

Proteomics in Drug Development: The Dawn of a New Era?

“…In parallel, profiling of disease phenotype and correlation with the drug mechanism of action and/or potential pathways controlling resistance, provides with a mechanistic link which can be further explored toward identification of systemic biomarkers . As a result of our increased understanding at the molecular level proteomics biomarkers have been additionally introduced to stratify the patients for receiving an intervention and predict response—a topic which is widely covered in recent reviews …”