Breast cancer is the most common malignancy for women. Accurate prediction of breast cancer and its pathological stages is important for treatment decision-making. Although many studies have focused on discovering circulating biomarkers of breast cancer, no such biomarkers have been reported for different stages of this disease. In this study, we identified blood protein biomarkers for each stage of breast cancer by analyzing transcriptome and proteome data from patients. Analysis of the TCGA transcriptome datasets revealed that a large number of genes were differentially expressed in tumor samples of each stage of breast cancer compared with adjacent normal tissues. Blood-secretory proteins encoded by these genes were then predicted by bioinformatics programs. Furthermore, iTRAQ-based proteomic analysis was conducted for plasma samples of breast cancer patients with different stages. A portion of predicted blood-secretory proteins could be detected and verified differentially expressed. Finally, several proteins were chosen as potential blood protein biomarkers for different stages of breast cancer due to their consistent expression patterns at both mRNA and protein levels. Overall, our data provide new insights into diagnosis and classification of breast cancer as well as selection of optimal treatments.

Significance

We identified blood protein biomarkers for each stage of breast cancer by analyzing tissue-based transcriptome and blood-based proteome data from patients. To our knowledge, this is the first time to try to identify blood protein biomarkers for different stages of breast cancer via these integrative analyses. Our data may provide new insights into diagnosis and classification of breast cancer as well as selection of optimal treatment.

中文翻译：

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通过综合转录组和蛋白质组分析鉴定乳腺癌分期的血液蛋白生物标志物

乳腺癌是女性最常见的恶性肿瘤。乳腺癌及其病理分期的准确预测对于治疗决策至关重要。尽管许多研究集中于发现乳腺癌的循环生物标志物，但尚未报道该疾病不同阶段的此类生物标志物。在这项研究中，我们通过分析患者的转录组和蛋白质组数据，确定了乳腺癌各个阶段的血液蛋白生物标志物。TCGA转录组数据集的分析表明，与相邻的正常组织相比，乳腺癌各个阶段的肿瘤样品中大量基因差异表达。然后由生物信息学程序预测由这些基因编码的血液分泌蛋白。此外，对不同阶段的乳腺癌患者的血浆样品进行了基于iTRAQ的蛋白质组学分析。可以检测到一部分预测的血液分泌蛋白，并验证其差异表达。最后，由于它们在mRNA和蛋白质水平上的一致表达方式，几种蛋白质被选作乳腺癌不同阶段的潜在血液蛋白质生物标志物。总体而言，我们的数据为乳腺癌的诊断和分类以及最佳治疗方法的选择提供了新的见解。由于它们在mRNA和蛋白质水平上的一致表达模式，因此选择了几种蛋白质作为乳腺癌不同阶段的潜在血液蛋白质生物标志物。总体而言，我们的数据为乳腺癌的诊断和分类以及最佳治疗方法的选择提供了新的见解。由于它们在mRNA和蛋白质水平上的一致表达模式，因此选择了几种蛋白质作为乳腺癌不同阶段的潜在血液蛋白质生物标记物。总体而言，我们的数据为乳腺癌的诊断和分类以及最佳治疗方法的选择提供了新的见解。

意义

我们通过分析患者的基于组织的转录组和基于血液的蛋白质组数据，确定了乳腺癌各个阶段的血液蛋白生物标志物。据我们所知，这是首次尝试通过这些综合分析来识别乳腺癌不同阶段的血液蛋白生物标志物。我们的数据可能为乳腺癌的诊断和分类以及最佳治疗方法的选择提供新的见解。