Dissecting cancer serum protein profiles using antibody arrays

Antibody arrays represent one of the high-throughput techniques enabling detection of multiple proteins simultaneously. One of the main advantages of the technology over other proteomic approaches resides on that the identities of the measured proteins are known at front of the experimental design or can be readily characterized, facilitating a biological interpretation of the obtained results. This chapter overviews the technical issues of the main antibody array formats as well as various applications using serum specimens in the context of neoplastic diseases. Clinical applications of antibody arrays vary from biomarker discovery for diagnosis, prognosis, and drug response to characterization of s protein pathways and modification changes associated with disease development and progression. As a high-throughput tool addressing protein levels and post-translational modifications, it improves the functional characterization of molecular bases for cancer. Furthermore, the identification and validation of protein expression patterns characteristic of cancer progression and tumor subtypes may enable tailored therapeutic intervention and improvement in the clinical management of cancer patients. Technical requirements such as lower sample volume, antibody concentration, format versatility, and high reproducibility support their increasing impact in cancer research.