Klin Onkol 2006; 19(Suppl2): 346-350.
Summary
Rapid development of genomic technologies allowed better understanding of changes in cancer cell genome. However, proteins coded by genes execute biological functions predominantly. Hence, direct analysis of collections of proteins i.e. proteome, is of great importance to understanding of carcinogenesis and also for diagnostics. The entire proteome in biological samples is analysed by clinical proteomics that aims to identify and characterise the disease related proteins. The purpose of this novel discipline in oncology is to identify new molecular biomarkers useful in early diagnosis and drug discovery. As cancer being a heterogeneous and dynamic disease, new high-throughput and large-scale technologies are required. Therefore protein microarrays represent a powerful tool in cancer research and diagnosis allowing simultaneous determination of a large number of parameters from a minute amount of sample within a single experiment. Assay systems based on this technology are used for identification and quantification of proteins as well as for the study of protein functions.
