Title

Biomarkers for early detection of high risk cancers: From gliomas to nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Authors

Oluwadayo Oluwadara^1,2 & Francesco Chiappelli¹

Affiliation

¹Division of Oral Biology and Medicine, UCLA School of Dentistry, Los Angeles, CA 90095; ²Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Email

fchiappelli@dentistry.ucla.edu

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

received December 20, 2008; revised January 01, 2009; accepted January 14, 2009; published April 21, 2009

Abstract

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NpC) is a malignant disease associated with Epstein-Barr virus infection, and often diagnosed at an advanced stage. This significantly curtails patient survival. We hypothesize that a panel of biomarkers can be assembled to assess NpC incidence, early detection, and tumor progression during therapeutic intervention. Our thesis rests on a model of successfully predicting high-risk gliomas by means of a carefully crafted panel of molecular mitotic biomarkers (i.e., securin, survivin and MCM2). The strategy we propose holds strong promise for prevention and cure of NpC. The approach we propose seeks to identify certain biomarkers from viral materials, patient tissues and assessment of related diseases, whose signatures, taken together, will be endowed with some degree of congruency, or sense of a coordinated language (i.e., “votes”). Biomarker “voting” will then permit to outline a broad coordinated molecular map for the molecular and epigenetic characterization of each individual patient’s NpC tumor. We will draw on the process of contrasting biomarkers in health and disease, which rests on the auto-proteomic concept particularly relevant in high-risk cancer individuals, such as is the case for NpC. In brief we defend, current advances in human proteome profiling proffers the possibility of having individual baseline proteomic profiles using local body fluids (e.g., saliva, nasal secretions, sputum) or systemic fluids (e.g., plasma, serum, cerebrospinal fluid) to unravel a personalized molecular map for high-risk NpC individuals. Regular check-up will monitor for new or impending manifestations of NpC, and provide a secure assessment of incidence and early detection.

Keywords

Molecular and Epigenetic Biomarkers, Nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Translational evidence-based personalized medicine, Proteomics, Auto-proteomics, Epstein Barr virus, Gliomas, MCM2, Survivin, Securin, Protein voting, serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE)

Citation

Oluwadara & Chiappelli, Bioinformation 3(8): 332-339 (2009)

Edited by

P. Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.