Prostate Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Prostate Cancer, including details on symptoms, genetics, screening, treatment, information.

Application of mass spectrometry to the discovery of biomarkers for detection of prostate cancer.

Semmes OJ, Malik G, Ward M

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Cell Biology, Center for Biomedical Proteomics, Virginia Prostate Center, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk 23507, USA. semmesoj@evms.edu

There has been an impressive emergence of mass spectrometry based technologies applied toward the study of proteins. Equally notable is the rapid adaptation of these technologies to biomedical approaches in the realm of clinical proteomics. Concerted efforts toward the elucidation of the proteomes of organ sites or specific disease state are proliferating and from these efforts come the promise of better diagnostics/prognostics and therapeutic intervention. Prostate cancer has been a focus of many such studies with the promise of improved care to patients via biomarkers derived from these proteomic approaches. The newer technologies provide higher analytical capabilities, employ automated liquid handling systems, fractionation techniques and bioinformatics tools for greater sensitivity and resolving power, more robust and higher throughput sample processing, and greater confidence in analytical results. In this prospects, we summarize the proteomic technologies applied to date in prostate cancer, along with their respective advantages and disadvantages. The development of newer proteomic strategies for use in future applications is also discussed.

Published 3 May 2006 in J Cell Biochem, 98(3): 496-503.
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