Proteomics for cancer biomarker discovery

The emergence of novel technologies allows researchers to facilitate the comprehensive analyses of genomes, transcriptomes, and proteomes in health and disease. The information that is expected from such technologies may soon exert a dramatic change in the pace of cancer research and impact dramatically on the care of cancer patients. These approaches have already demonstrated the power of molecular medicine in discriminating among disease subtypes that are not recognizable by traditional pathologic criteria and in identifying specific genetic events involved in cancer progression. This review covers a selection of advances in the realm of proteomics and its promise for cancer biomarker discovery. It also addresses issues regarding sample preparation and specificity and discusses current challenges that need to be overcome. Finally, the review touches on the efforts of the Early Detection Research Network at the National Cancer Institute in promoting biomarker discovery for translation at the clinical level. (C) 2002 American Association for Clinical Chemistry.