The promising future of proteomics in cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Cancer is a leading cause of death in developed countries. For most cancers, a patient's prognosis improves dramatically when the disease is detected at an early stage. Although advancements in imaging technology have dramatically improved early detection, many cancers go undetected until it is too late. As cancer develops, molecular changes occur before many of the current prognostic markers can be detected. Proteomics will be used to interrogate the protein milieu in serum and urine to detect molecular changes indicative of a disease state and will provide a cost-effective alternative to current diagnostic tools.