Clinical Application of Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics in Lung Cancer Early Diagnosis.

OBJECTIVES: We summarized the current knowledge on proteomic biomarker analysis for the early diagnosis of lung cancer, underlining the diversity among the results and the current interest in translating research results into clinical practice. METHODS: We performed a MEDLINE®/PubMed® literature search to retrieve all the papers published in the last 10 years. RESULTS: Proteomics studies on lung cancer have gathered evidence on the potential role of biomarkers in early diagnosis. Although promising, none of them have proved to be sufficiently reliable to achieve validation. CONCLUSIONS: Future research should evolve towards a multipanel analysis of proteins, considering the possibility that individual biomarkers might not be specific enough to diagnose lung cancer, but could be related to oncological conditions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.