Deciphering protein molecular signatures in cancer tissues to aid in diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy

Protein signatures in disease, a portion of the protein complement of cells that directly reflects disease related changes, provide a unique data set that may be correlated with or be an aid to more effective diagnosis, prognosis, and response to therapy. A recent article in this Journal from the author's laboratory described the protein analysis of glioma tissue and the discovery of protein signatures for assessing the stage of disease as well as their correlation with patient survival. This investigation used direct proteomic analysis of glioma biopsies, the discovery of molecular signatures for stage and outcome, and identification of specific proteins of this signature group. This minireview discusses the background and present state of the technology used in this work and the role that direct tissue analysis can play in the discovery of high-quality protein signatures.