New serum marker specific for her2 breast cancer

[Lani]

J Proteome Res. 2006 Nov 3;5(11):2947-2955. Links
Declining Plasma Fibrinogen Alpha Fragment Identifies HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Patients and Reverts to Normal Levels after Surgery.

Shi Q et al

Departments of Cancer Biology and Biostatistics, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, Institute of Proteomics and Systems Biology, Institute of Biomedical Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, Program in Computational Biology, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Breast cancer is the most common nonskin malignancy affecting women. Currently, no simple, blood-based diagnostic test exists to complement radiological screening and increase sensitivity of detection. To screen plasma specimens and identify biomarkers that detect HER2-positive breast cancer, automated robotic sample processing followed by surface-enhanced laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (SELDI-TOF) mass spectroscopy was used. Multiple statistical algorithms were used to select biomarkers that segregate cancer patients versus controls and produced average CV rates ranging from 20% to 29%. A set of seven biomarkers were validated on an independent test data set and achieved the best error rate of 19.1%. A permutation test indicateded a p-value for CV error less than 0.002. Moreover, a ROC curve using these biomarkers achieved an area-under-the-curve value of 0.95 on an independent test data set. The marker responsible for most of the resolving power was identified as a fragment of Fibrinogen Alpha (FGA) encompassing residues 605-629. This marker was present at lower levels in cancer patients as compared to controls. The importance of this biomarker was validated in a longitudinal study comparing pre- and post-operative levels and was shown to revert to normal levels after surgery. This fragment may serve as a useful diagnostic and treatment-monitoring marker.
PMID: 17081046 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]