Development of biomarkers of genitourinary cancer using mass spectrometry-based clinical proteomics

Yi-Ting Chen ^a,b,c,d,*, Cheng-Han Tsai ^a, Chien-Lun Chen ^e,f, Jau-Song Yu ^a,b,g, Ying-Hsu Chang ^h,i,**

^a Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

^b Molecular Medicine Research Center, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

^c Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

^d Department of Nephrology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou Medical Center, Taiwan University, Taoyuan,

Taiwan

^e Department of Urology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan

^f College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

^g Liver Research Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan

^h Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, LinKou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan

ⁱ Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

Prostate, bladder and kidney cancer are the three most common types of genitourinary cancer in the world. Of these, prostate and bladder cancers are within the top 10 most common cancers in men. Notably, kidney cancer causes no obvious symptoms in the early stages. To satisfy clinical-management requirements, researchers have developed numerous biomarkers by applying proteomic approaches using clinical serum, urine and tissue specimens, as well as cell and animal models. Through application of biomarker pipeline protocols, including discovery, verification and validation phases, and mass-spectrometric based proteomic platforms coupled with multiplexed quantification assays, these studies have led to recent rapid progress in this area. With improvements in mass-spectrometric based proteomic techniques, numerous promising biomarker candidates and marker panels for various clinical purposes have been proposed. Verification of novel protein biomarker candidates is very resource demanding (e.g. on the clinical and laboratory sides). With the support of national consortia, it is now possible to investigate the future clinical use of such biomarker strategies and assess their cost-effectiveness in personalized medicine.