Proteomics Approaches for the Early Detection and Diagnosis of Cancer

摘要

Thousands of patients are annually diagnosed with cancer in Iran and around the globe. The early detection and diagnosis of cancer, the tumorigenesis is in its early phase is crucial for its ultimate control and prevention. Today, the number of people who die from cancer, compared to three decades ago, have declined. Identifying the nature and development of cancer have always attracted a lot of attention from clinicians and scientists. Understanding the cellular changes alone in living species requires basic molecular investigations. Recent advances in molecular biology have been of great help researcher’s understanding the complex interaction of genetic alteration, transcription and translation of human cancer. Proteomics studies could play an important role in prevention, early detection and treatment of cancer. Early stage detection is the key to obtain a better outcome for therapeutic intervention of cancer. Although, advances in early stage detection of cancer have come of great help to cancer treatment, most routine screening and diagnosis tools lack sufficient sensitivity and specificity of molecular approaches such as proteomics. With the proteomic technologies emerging, classification and identification of body fluid proteins have been a major focus of scientists. Proteomic analyses have opened a new horizon in screening changes happening in cellular processes to become cancerous, however, it is yet to be perfected using complementary approaches for more accurate diagnosis of cancers. A combination of proteomics approaches like Ciphergen Protein Chip Arrays and SELDI-TOF MS with bioinformatics tools was proved to be effective in the discovery of new biomarkers which further helps the early-stage detection and diagnosis of cancer.