Cancer Proteomics and the Elusive Diagnostic Biomarkers

Despite progress in genomic and proteomic technology and applications, the validation of cancer biomarkers of use as clinical early detection diagnostics has remained elusive. As described in this brief viewpoint, there are now recognized to be many types of clinical biomarkers and proteomic analyses, particularly when combined with other 'omic analyses, have been effective in many such biomarker identifications. However, in the area of early diagnosis of cancers, the problems associated with the conversion from identification to diagnostic have largely not been overcome. Notably, the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), has been particularly successful in refining the analytical steps needed to tackle this challenging issue and has provided positive insight into how to solve many of the underlying problems. The potential for developing clinical diagnostics for early detection of highly lethal cancers and possible new therapeutic strategies through proteomic analyses, as seen through these CPTAC successes, is more promising than ever.