title: Combining proteomics, serum biomarkers and bioinformatics to discriminate between esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and pre-cancerous lesion.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Biomarker assay is a noninvasive method for the early detection of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Searching for new biomarkers with high specificity and sensitivity is very important for the early detection of ESCC. Serum surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) is a high throughput technology for identifying cancer biomarkers using drops of sera.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, 185 serum samples were taken from ESCC patients in a high incidence area and screened by SELDI. A support vector machine (SVM) algorithm was adopted to analyze the samples.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The SVM patterns successfully distinguished ESCC from pre-cancerous lesions (PCLs). Also, types of PCL, including dysplasia (DYS) and basal cell hyperplasia (BCH), and healthy controls (HC) were distinguished with an accuracy of 95.2% (DYS), 96.6% (BCH), and 93.8% (HC), respectively. A marker of 25.1 kDa was identified in the ESCC patterns whose peak intensity was observed to increase significantly during the development of esophageal carcinogenesis, and to decrease obviously after surgery.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We selected five ESCC biomarkers to form a diagnostic pattern which can discriminate among the different stages of esophageal carcinogenesis. This pattern can significantly improve the detection of ESCC.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Institute, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Intervention, China National Ministry of Education, the Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-hui
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Zhai
authors.forename: Jie-kai
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Li-dong
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zheng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D020543:Proteome / Q000032:analysis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D020543:Proteome