The sensitivity and specificity of multi-tumor markers are higher than single tumor marker

Multi-marker protein panels for cancer diagnosis

Conventional approaches to the diagnosis of cancer study the up- and down-regulation of single proteins in serum or tissue samples. While these approaches have resulted in a number of useful biomarkers, they are laborious and time-consuming methods.

Recently, scientists have used protein chip technology – along with computer based classification algorithms – to discover signature protein panels in serum that discriminate cancer patients from healthy individuals.

These multi-marker protein panels consist of many individual proteins, none of which can independently differentiate a cancer patient from a healthy individual.

Multi-marker discovery & validation

Drs Chip Petricoin and Lance Liotta from the joint FDA/ NCI proteomics center, Dr Daniel Chan from Johns Hopkins University and Dr George Wright from Eastern Virginia Medical School have all had success with multi-marker technology platform.

These preeminent researchers have combined protein chip technology with a variety of statistically multivariate algorithms to discover multi-marker protein panels in serum of ovarian, prostate and breast cancer patients.

Data from some of their recent publications clearly demonstrates that multi-marker protein panels have significantly higher positive predictive value than single markers in discriminating cancer patients from non-cancer patients as the chart below describes.

 

 

References

(1) Adam, B-Leg Qu, Y., Davis, J.W., Ward, M.D.,Clements, M.A., Cazares, L.H., Semmes, O.J.,Schellhammer, PF, Yasui, Y., Feng, Z., Wright,G. Serum protein fingerprinting coupled witha pattern-matching algorithm distinguishes prostate cancer from benign prostate hyper-plasia and healthy men. Cancer Research , 62,3609-3614 (2002).

(2) Li, J., Zhang, Z., Rosenzweig, Wang, Y.Y.,Chan, D.W. Proteomics and bioinformaticsapproached for identification of serum biomarkers to detecting breast cancer. Clinical Chemistry , 48, 1296-1304 (2002).

(3) Petricoin, E.F., Ardekani, A.M., Hitt, B.A.,Levine, P.J., Fusaro, V.A., Steinberg, S.M.,Mills, G.B., Simone, C., Fishman, D.A., Kohn,E.C., Liotta, L.A. Use of proteomic patterns in serum to identify ovarian cancer. The Lancet , 359, 572-577 (2002).

(4) Petricoin, E.F., Ornstein, D.K., Paweletz, C.P.,Ardekani, A., Hackett, P.S., Hitt, B.A., Velassco,A., Trucco, C., Weigand, L., Woo, K., Simone,C.B., Levine, P.J., Linehan, M., Emmert-Buck,M.R., Steinberg, S. M., Kohn, E.C., Liotta, L.A.Serum Proteomic Patterns for Detection of Prostate Cancer. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 94, 1576-1578 (2002).

(5) Rai, A.J., Zhang, Z., Rosenzweig, J., Shih, L.,Pham, T., Fung, E., Sokoll, L.J., Chan, D.W.Proteomic Approaches to Tumor Marker Discovery. Identification of Biomarkers for Ovarian Cancer. Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. 126, 1518-1526 (2002)