Oncoproteomics: insight into current proteomic technologies in cancer biomarker discovery and treatment

Cancer is a disease with second largest fatalities in humans and the sheer complexity of the disease is an enigma to the scientific community. It continues to be a highly significant research area for the development of diagnostics and therapeutics. While a great deal of focus has been on genomics study of cancer, the fact that cancer tissues have altered protein expression and unique protein–protein interactions demands more attention. The role of proteins and peptides which are unique and aberrant in cancer tissues has generated a great deal of interest in cancer proteome and serve as important diagnostic and therapeutic targets in the form of biomarkers. Oncoproteomics along with computational and genomic advances is utilized for the discovery of biomarkers and modern therapeutics indispensable in cancer management and care; the focus areas in cancer research involving proteomic studies, technologies used and their advances, identification and quantification of proteins with greater sensitivity and resolution, and detection of post-translational modifications. In this review, we have discussed an overview of various technological advances in oncoproteomics and the therapeutic milestones achieved using the oncoproteome data leading to antibody engineering, peptidomimetics, bispecific antibodies, and other techniques.