Abstract
The lack of appropriate surrogates or biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment monitoring is a major hindrance to effective melanoma care. Proteomics analysis has been heralded as a novel tool for identifying new and specific tumor biomarkers. Proteomics analysis not only involves identification of peptidic amino acid sequences as predicted by cDNA, but also protein separation and protein identification as well as the characterization of post-translational modifications that may be of functional importance in tumor biology. This may lead to the discovery of potential new biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The recent years have brought a number of proteomic-profiling technologies, which have been applied to a variety of tumor entities, including malignant melanoma. Although proteomics profiling has resulted in the detection of significant differences in the levels and modifications of proteins, current proteomics technologies display certain limitations and are subject to rapid development. In this review, we summarize the current advances in mass spectrometry-based biomarker discovery for malignant melanoma. The promises and challenges of this new technology are discussed with particular emphasis on diagnostic perspectives of mass spectrometry-based proteomics profiling.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
This project was supported in part by a grant from the Deutsche Krebshilfe (Project no. 106856) and the Lesser-Loewe Foundation e.V. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.