Ongoing advances in proteomic technology offer great promise and have begun to contribute to the increased understanding of the molecular basis of cancer. Clearly genomic, proteomic and other 'omics' are the primary discovery research tool for biomarker and target discovery. Innovations in the application of high-throughput proteomic profiling, particularly using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (SELDI-TOF) MS, have become best practice for biomarker discovery. As such, the identified protein profiles are powerful diagnostic markers that can predict treatment efficacy, disease progression and possibly even cancer risk. From a proteomics perspective, the bone cancer field seems to be amongst the most understudied diseases. The proclivity of many tumors (e.g., breast and prostate) for bone is frequently associated with intractable bone pain, pathological fractures, nerve compression, and hypercalcemia due to osteolysis and is a feature often distinct from locoregional and visceral spread. In addition, for primary skeletal tumors such as multiple myeloma, or osteosarcoma, the associated extensive bone destruction denotes a dramatic change in the prognosis for the patient that significantly increases morbidity. As a result, the pattern of disease progression, response to therapy and ultimately patient survival following diagnosis is subject to extremely wide variation. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
