title: SELDI-TOF serum proteomics and breast cancer: which perspective?
abstract: Despite the efforts of recent years, clinicians still lack reliable biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of clinical outcomes in breast cancer patients. Owing to the large number of people potentially involved in the management of this clinical problem, the search for noninvasive and repeatable laboratory assays has been intensive. Recently, the proteomic profiling performed by SELDI-TOF mass spectrometry, has been proposed in order to identify new clusters of serum markers that could be potentially useful in breast cancer management. The purpose of this special report is to review the literature on SELDI-TOF technology applied on serum coming from healthy people and breast cancer patients, in order to verify the clinical applicability of such approach. We conclude that potential new biomarkers, first of all for early diagnosis of breast cancer, need to be validated in larger clinical series.
authors.affiliation: Chemical-Clinical Microbiology and Immunology Laboratory Unit, 'Giovanni Paolo II', National Cancer Institute, Via Samuel F. Hahnemann 10, 70126 Bari, Italy. vmgarrisi@libero.it
authors.forename: Vito Michele
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Garrisi
authors.forename: Ines
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Abbate
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Quaranta
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mangia
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tommasi
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paradiso
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods*; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor