Book of abstract 2008

The role of integrative genomics/proteomics in the detection and
treatment of metastatic breast cancer
Krešimir Pavelić
Division of Molecular Medicine, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
The sequencing of human genome has provided the first look at all genes. The next
steps however require powerful high-throughput techniques. Medicine is entering a
new era of global approaches in scientific techniques. These approaches, named –omics
represents a global, systematic and comprehensive way for identifying and describing the
processes and pathways involved in normal as well as abnormal states. Omics are global
methodologies to characterization of all, or most members belonging to a certain family
of molecules, in one single analysis. It is characterized by high-throughput or large-scale
experimental methodologies combined with statistical and computational analyses of
the results. The fundamental strategy of omics approach is aimed to expand the scope
of biological investigation from studying single entities (genes/proteins) to studying all
possible parameters collectively in a coordinated and systematic fashion. In general, these
studies have emphasized the potential of technology for biomarker discovery, as well as for
addressing the issue of cancer heterogeneity, new classification, early diagnosis and new
therapeutic targets. Two important omics approaches – transcriptomics and proteomics
have become a powerful tools for deciphering the complex signaling pathways in tumor
biology. Cancer proteomics have already identified proteins of potential clinical interest.
There are two major foci for the use of omics in oncology. The first is to discover new
molecular markers for the profiling of tumors and the second is to decipher pathways that
lead to cancer cell development. Such data are beginning to provide a knowledge base
for the identification of possible therapies for the disease and subsequent development
of innovative strategies. Unquestionably, cancer is the disease that has received most
attention and the generated data address mainly aspects of clinical oncology. However,
functional genomic methods are new and highly dependent on bioinformatics and
statistics, which
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require additional improvement, since the meaning and importance of
the results derived from such large-scale experiments are not widely appreciated. The goal
of my presentation is to discuss the possible applications of these technologies in breast
cancer, since they already have great impact on the management of cancer: in the discovery
of new drug targets, development of new molecular tools for diagnosis and prognosis as
well as in improving treatments by taking into account the molecular characteristics of a
given tumor. Breast cancer proteomics have already identified proteins of potential clinical
interest. Practical consequences for treatment derived from a better understanding of the
molecular basis of cancer cell growth are now emerging, as evidenced by the development
of therapeutic strategies. One of the most exciting challenges today is to move cancer omics
from the “benchside” to the “bedside”.
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