Genome-scale Quantitative Tumour Proteomics for Cancer Biomarkers Discovery

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SELECTBIO

Present diagnostic procedures and therapeutic strategies for breast cancer rely on the detection and targeting of specific marker molecules to classify the tumour and to design an efficient therapy. Examples for such markers/targets are the oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PgR), and the Erb2/Her2 molecule, a receptor tyrosine protein kinase that is overexpressed in a subset of breast cancers. There are number of treatment options for tumours that express the ER, PgR or Her2 receptors, however up to 20 percent of the newly diagnosed cases belong to a subset, which is negative for all three of the receptor molecules. This triple-negative type of cancer is associated with worse prognosis because the therapeutic options are limited compared to receptor-positive cases. In an effort to discover novel markers and drug target candidates for this type of cancer we used high precision quantitative proteomics to generate genome-scale protein expression profiles in a cohort of breast tumours grouped according to their lymph node metastasis status. During the talk I will discuss the development of the methods used in the study, data analysis, and examples of candidate biomarkers and drug target molecules.