Unleashing the power of proteomics to develop blood-based cancer markers

BACKGROUND: There is an urgent need for blood-based molecular tests to assist in the detection and diagnosis of cancers at an early stage, when curative interventions are still possible, and to predict and monitor response to treatment and disease recurrence. The rich content of proteins in blood that are impacted by tumor devel-opment and host factors provides an ideal opportunity to develop noninvasive diagnostics for cancer. CONTENT: Mass spectrometry instrumentation has ad-vanced sufficiently to allow the discovery of protein alterations directly in plasma across no less than 7 or-ders of magnitude of protein abundance. Moreover, the use of proteomics to harness the immune response in the form of seropositivity to tumor antigens has the potential to complement circulating protein bio