Abstract
During the last decade, complex methodologies have been developed in order to identify patterns of biomarkers with clinical relevance. It is commonly agreed that in early diagnosis, due to the complex nature of the neoplastic process, a single analyte cannot provide information regarding the complex array of cellular physiological status during the outcome of a disease. A proteomic/genomic pattern composed of many individual proteins can better differentiate patients from healthy individuals. For this declared purpose, individual proteomic platforms or platform combinations are often used to uncover the enormous array of intact and cleaved proteins contained by the human proteome. In the last 10 years, the patents disclosing early diagnosis biomarker panels in cancer have been steadily increasing from just one in 2002, to 14 in 2009, while in the first 6 months of 2010, 13 patents have already been disclosed. In the published papers regarding early diagnosis biomarkers, the same logarithmically growing number has been acknowledged. Among solid tumors, the gynaecological cancers are the most investigated and patented ones in the biomarker discovery area, with focus on breast, ovarian and endometrial cancers. Besides this type of cancer, colorectal and lung cancer are also subjects of some recent patents.
Keywords: Biomarker, cancer, diagnosis, early, panels, proteome, gynaecological cancers, cohort screening, innovative therapy, carcinogenesis, prognosis, therapy, thymosin beta15, cutaneous melanoma, ovarian cancer, osteopontin, CA-125, prostate-specific, CA19-9, human cance, proteomics technology, SELDI-TOF, MALDI-TOF, spectrometry analysis, linear trap, (LC)-MS/MS, pulsed Q dissociation, metalloproteinase inhibitor, laser scanning cytometry, cervical cancer, Lung cancer, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Breast Cancer, carcinoembryonic, antigen-CA15.3, peptidylprolyl isomerase, peroxiredoxin 2, HSP60, RT-PCR, EGFR, PCR
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