A systems approach to the proteomic identification of novel cancer biomarkers

The proteomics field has experienced rapid growth with technologies achieving ever increasing accuracy, sensitivity, and throughput, and with availability of computational tools to address particular applications. Given that the proteome represents the most functional component encoded for in the genome, a systems approach to disease investigations and biomarker identification benefits substantially from integration of proteome level studies. Here we present proteomic approaches that have allowed systematic searches for potential cancer markers by integrating cancer cell profiling with additional sources of data, as illustrated with recent studies of ovarian cancer.