Present status of clinical proteomic analysis for the early detection and determination of therapeutic strategy in lung cancer.

Although human DNA sequences have already been successfully decoded, there is still much we do not understand about the pathogenesis of human diseases. Proteomic analysis is comprehensive analysis of proteins, and there is a high probability that recent advances in this field will enable its application to individualized therapy based on thorough understanding of the pathogenesis of human diseases. Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and mass spectrometry (MS) are indispensable tools for proteomic analysis, and these technologies enable discovery of tiny changes of protein expression associated with pathogenesis. In this review we introduce the present status of proteomic analysis for cancer-related proteins, and especially lung cancer-related proteins in the attempt to discover new biomarkers for early detection and determine novel target-molecules for treatment. We believe that proteomic analysis will provide crucial information for diagnosis and treatment.