VDM Govorukhina, N: Biomarker Discovery for Cervical Cancer

Proteomics of human body fluids is still in its infancy and much attention focuses on development of analytical methods and experimental strategies. Limited availability of suitable samples from patients and controls often renders systematic biomarker studies that have sufficient statistical power difficult. Many samples have not been taken, stored, prepared with proteomics analyses in mind. The book deals with various aspects of sample preparation, notably with different approaches to deplete abundant serum proteins. Number of pre-analytical parameters have been evaluated in a fractional factorial design with respect to their influence on the serum proteome. Part of the book focuses on aspects of data processing and statistical analysis as applied to the analysis of, serum samples from cervical cancer patients before and after medical treatment. The analyses pointed towards a number of proteins that change due to medical treatment. The results show that the described methods are applicable to highly complex body fluids such as serum and that further studies of serum proteome are warranted. The book is of interest to professionals in proteomics and for clinicians.