Email this page

Print this page

Review

The evolving role of mass spectrometry in cancer biomarker discovery

Pei Wang, Jeffrey R. Whiteaker and Amanda G. Paulovich

Although the field of mass spectrometry-based proteomics is still in its infancy, recent developments in
targeted proteomic techniques have left the field poised to impact the clinical protein biomarker pipeline now
more than at any other time in history. For proteomics to meet its potential for finding biomarkers, clinicians,
statisticians, epidemiologists, and chemists must work together in an interdisciplinary approach. These
interdisciplinary efforts will have the greatest chance for success if participants from each discipline have a
basic working knowledge of the other disciplines. To that end, the purpose of this review is to provide a
nontechnical overview of the emerging/evolving roles that mass spectrometry (especially targeted modes of
mass spectrometry) can play in the biomarker pipeline, in hope of making the technology more accessible to
the broader community for biomarker discovery efforts. Additionally, the technologies discussed are broadly
applicable to proteomic studies, and are not restricted to biomarker discovery.

Authors

Pei Wang

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA

Jeffrey R. Whiteaker

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA

Amanda G. Paulovich Corresponding author: apaulovi@fhcrc.org

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA