'New proteomic technology has potential to combat cancer'

Scientists have proposed that in order to develop more sensitive and specific cancer diagnostic tests, one should measure many biomarkers in a fluid simultaneously. It was estimated that there were on the order of 100,000 to a million different proteins in a human, many of which may be found in the bloodstream.
These views were expressed by the Professor and Chairman Department of Urology at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Dr Chris Bangma, while delivering a lecture on "Proteomic research developments in cancer diagnosis" at the University of Health Sciences (UHS), here. UHS vice-chancellor, Professor M.H. Mubbashar, senior faculty members and a large number of postgraduate students attended the seminar arranged by UHS physiology department.
Dr Bangma said it was thought that patterns revealed in a panel of proteins (known as a "protein signature") associated with a form of cancer might have better diagnostic and predictive capabilities than the current single-marker approach. There was also a greater need to more rigorously correlate that proteins and their levels with the presence of disease, he added.
He said that clinical proteomics, which referred to the study of all the proteins in an organism, was a relatively new technology for cancer diagnosis. He said that of importance to cancer research and treatment was the finding that tumours leak proteins and other molecules into blood, urine, and other accessible bodily fluids.
Dr Bangma further said that certain blood proteins were already being used as cancer biomarkers. Giving an example of prostate cancer he said that elevated levels of a protein, prostate specific antigen (PSA), suggest the presence of cancer. Its indication was made by ultrasound guided transrectal biopsy. A major disadvantage of that diagnostic marker was its low specificity, resulting in a significant amount of false biopsy indications.
PSA was a normal excretion product of the prostate cells and was therefore not only found in the circulation of men with prostate cancer but also of men with a normal prostate, hence the need for measuring as many as possible biomarkers in a fluid simultaneously, Dr Bangma explained.
He said that a consortium composed of top European laboratories, was working on a research project to search for improved diagnostic and prognostic prostate cancer markers by the identification and evaluation of novel markers as well as the evaluation and validation of recently developed promising markers.