Proteomic studies searching for breast cancer markers: а review of literature

Breast malignancies hold the lead in the pattern of cancers among women worldwide. Currently used methods for the instrumental diagnosis of breast cancer (BC) and their related diagnostic procedures are not sophisticated. The common constraint of instrumental techniques is the ambiguity of resultы interpretation that is associated with a diversity of individual characteristics of the structure and morphology of the breast. There is a need to search for novel diagnostic methods and oncomarkers, which are highly specific, highly sensitive, and inexpensive and able to reveal early stages in tumor development. In our opinion, a search for BC biomarkers is a promising and relevant area in oncology. Mass spectrometric methods are used to detect and identify proteomic markers in blood, biological fluids, tumor tissue, lysates, and secretomes of cancer cell lines. State-of-the-art high tech proteomics and mass spectrometric studies are oriented to the analysis of biological fluids and blood in order to identify new biomarkers. It is really that a blood test does not require any material obtained directly from tumor tissue and hence it is independent of the site of a tumor, implies the early detection of primary tumors or secondary foci, and is required by a medical oncologist in current clinical practice. The given review deals with the analysis of current methods to diagnose BC and to evaluate the efficiency of its therapy, by applying proteomic markers and the latest advances in clinical oncoproteomics.