Identification of serum biomarkers for nasopharyngeal carcinoma by proteomic analysis.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Early diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains a challenge. Serum protein profiling is a promising approach for the classification of cancer versus noncancer samples. The objective of the current study was to assess the feasibility of mass spectrometry-based protein profiling and a classification tree algorithm for discriminating between patients with NPC and noncancer controls.

METHODS:

Serum samples from patients with NPC and noncancer controls were analyzed by using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS). The study was divided into a preliminary training set and a blind test set: A preliminary training set and a classification tree of spectra derived from 55 patients with NPC and a group of 60 noncancer controls were used to develop a proteomic model that discriminated cancer from noncancer effectively. Then, the validity of the classification tree was challenged with a blind test set, which included another 25 patients with NPC and 28 noncancer controls.

RESULTS:

Four protein peaks at 4097 daltons (Da), 4180 Da, 5912 Da, and 8295 Da were chosen automatically as a biomarker pattern in the training set that discriminated cancer from noncancer with sensitivity of 94.5% and specificity of 96.7%. When the SELDI marker pattern was tested with the blinded test set, it yielded a sensitivity of 92%, a specificity of 92.9%, and an accuracy rate of 92.5%. The accuracy of 2 protein peaks (4581 Da and 7802 Da) was 80% for predicting stage I and II NPC and 86% for predicting stage III and IV NPC.

CONCLUSIONS:

The high sensitivity and specificity obtained by the serum protein profiling approach demonstrated that SELDI-TOF-MS combined with a tree analysis model both can facilitate discriminating between NPC and noncancer controls and can provide an innovative clinical diagnostic platform to improve the detection of NPC.

• Authors: Ye-Sheng Wei, Yan-Hua Zheng, Wei-Bo Liang, Jian-Zhong Zhang, Zhi-Hui Yang, Mei-Li Lv, Jing Jia, Lin Zhang
• Journal: Cancer (Cancer) Vol. 112 Issue 3 Pg. 544-51 (Feb 01 2008) ISSN: 0008-543X [Print] United States
• PMID: 18085639 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Biomarkers, Tumor
• Neoplasm Proteins

Topics

• Adult
• Algorithms
• Biomarkers, Tumor (blood)
• Carcinoma, Squamous Cell (blood, diagnosis)
• Case-Control Studies
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms (blood, diagnosis)
• Neoplasm Proteins (blood)
• Neoplasm Staging
• Proteomics (methods)
• Reproducibility of Results
• Sensitivity and Specificity
• Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization