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Updated: Aug 6, 2026
08:08
Quantitative Mass Spectrometric Profiling of Cancer-cell Proteomes Derived From Liquid and Solid Tumors
Published on: February 27, 2015
Sex differences in the cancer proteome
Chenghao Zhu1,2,3,4,5,6,7, Nicole Zeltser3,4,5,6,7, Jieun Oh3,4,5,6,7
1Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program, NCI-Designated Cancer Center, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
BMJ Oncology
|July 17, 2026
Summary
Sex has a modest impact on the cancer proteome, with differences observed in lung adenocarcinoma and other tumor types. Further research with larger proteomics cohorts is needed to fully understand sex-specific cancer biology.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Proteomics
- Genomics
Background:
- Proteins are key in cancer biology, serving as drug targets and biomarkers.
- Biological sex influences disease proteomes, impacting cancer incidence, progression, and treatment response.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the extent to which biological sex differences affect the cancer proteome.
- To characterize sex-differential protein abundance and its associations in various cancer types.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of publicly available proteogenomic datasets.
- Utilized data from the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) including 1590 proteomes across eight cancer types.
Main Results:
- Identified 901 genes with sex-differential protein abundance in lung adenocarcinoma and 20 genes in five other cancer types.
- Sex-differential protein differences were partially explained by copy number aberrations.
- Pathway analysis revealed distinct male- and female-biased protein enrichments in lung adenocarcinoma, linked to gene dependency.
Conclusions:
- Sex has a modest impact on the cancer proteome.
- Current proteomics cohorts have limited power for comprehensive sex-based analyses.
- Further investigation is warranted to elucidate sex-specific cancer mechanisms.
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