Tumor pleural effusion proteome profiling for ovarian cancer biomarkers mining

Mass spectrometric proteome profiling of tumor pleural effusion (TPE) liquid fraction from ovarian cancer patients was performed to identify the potential biomarkers of the disease. The methodology of analysis of the TPE protein composition included the removal of high-abundant proteins by affinity chromatography, additional fractionation of the low-abundant proteins based on their lipophilicity, and high-resolution mass spectrometric analysis. As a result, 190 proteins were indentified, 49% of them belonging to the groups of extracellular and membrane proteins. The application of several criteria to data analysis allowed us to generate a group of 26 proteins that are promising candidates for testing as ovarian cancer biomarkers.