Proteomic patterns analysis: a new era of screening cancers

Cancer is the second leading cause of death among Americans. It is estimated that 1.28 million new Americans are diagnosed with cancer annually (1). The estimated overall annual cost of cancer being $171 Billion (1). Decreasing the costs of the screening and diagnostic tests will automatically decrease the total cost of cancer by limiting not only the direct medical costs but also by containing the indirect costs of morbidity and mortality. New screening and diagnostic tests are obviously needed. Screening methods are emerging in the evaluation of proteomic patterns. In proteomic pattern analysis, we can screen for not only one cancer but a chip may be able to screen for multiple cancers. New screening and diagnostic methods (2) investigated by NCI and FDA (3) (4) are correlating gene and protein expression patterns for early detection of cancer. Many papers have been published in the last 12 months (3) (4) (5) utilizing this new technique of molecular analysis in screening and diagnosing cancers with high sensitivity and specificity.