Cancer is a heterogeneous multifactorial disease, which continues to be one of the main causes of death worldwide. Despite the extensive efforts for establishing accurate diagnostic assays and efficient therapeutic schemes, disease prevalence is on the rise, in part, however, also due to improved early detection. For years, studies were focused on genomics and transcriptomics, aiming at the discovery of new tests with diagnostic or prognostic potential. However, cancer phenotypic characteristics seem most likely to be a direct reflection of changes in protein metabolism and function, which are also the targets of most drugs. Investigations at the protein level are therefore advantageous particularly in the case of in‐depth characterization of tumor progression and invasiveness. Innovative high‐throughput proteomic technologies are available to accurately evaluate cancer formation and progression and to investigate the functional role of key proteins in cancer. Employing these new highly sensitive proteomic technologies, cancer biomarkers may be detectable that contribute to diagnosis and guide curative treatment when still possible. In this review, the recent advances in proteomic biomarker research in cancer are outlined, with special emphasis placed on the identification of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for solid tumors. In view of the increasing number of screening programs and clinical trials investigating new treatment options, we discuss the molecular connections of the biomarkers as well as their potential as clinically useful tools for diagnosis, risk stratification and therapy monitoring of solid tumors.

中文翻译：

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实体瘤的蛋白质组学生物标志物：现状和未来展望

癌症是一种异质性多因素疾病，仍然是世界范围内主要的死亡原因之一。尽管人们为建立准确的诊断分析方法和有效的治疗方案付出了巨大的努力，但疾病流行率仍在上升，这在一定程度上是由于早期检测的改善。多年来，研究一直集中在基因组学和转录组学上，旨在发现具有诊断或预后潜力的新检测方法。然而，癌症的表型特征似乎最有可能直接反映蛋白质代谢和功能变化，而蛋白质代谢和功能变化也是大多数药物的目标。因此，在深入研究肿瘤进展和侵袭性的情况下，蛋白质水平的研究尤其有利。创新的高通量蛋白质组学技术可准确评估癌症的形成和进展，并研究关键蛋白在癌症中的功能。利用这些新的高度敏感的蛋白质组学技术，可能仍可检测到癌症生物标志物，这些标志物有助于诊断并指导治疗。在这篇综述中，概述了蛋白质组学生物标志物在癌症研究中的最新进展，特别着重于对实体瘤的诊断和预后生物标志物的鉴定。鉴于越来越多的筛选方案和研究新治疗方案的临床试验，我们讨论了生物标志物的分子联系以及它们作为实体瘤的诊断，风险分层和治疗监测的临床有用工具的潜力。