Personalized proteomic analysis of human colorectal cancer identifies novel biomarkers associated with tumor progression

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC), one of the most common gastrointestinal malignancies, imposes a substantial clinical burden worldwide owing to its high morbidity and mortality. In this study, we collected twenty-five pairs of tumor and matched normal adjacent tissues from CRC patients at different Tumor‑Node‑Metastasis (TNM) stages and performed quantitative proteomics analysis to identify proteins that changed during disease progression. We identified over 12,000 proteins with high human proteome coverage, generated personalized proteome profiles for CRC patients, and screened and verified some differentially abundant proteins that might play key roles in the development and metastasis of CRC. We also clustered proteins that dynamically changed during CRC progression into 6 profiling patterns, and proteins with distinct profiling patterns may be associated with different processes of tumor progression. Moreover, progression‑free survival analysis of CRC patients revealed a significant correlation between the newly identified biomarker candidates and postoperative metastasis. Taken together, our study provided an accurate picture of the proteomic landscapes during the progression of carcinogenesis and identified several potential candidates as new biomarkers for CRC, and highlighted the potential of proteomic technology to elucidate clinically relevant cancer signatures.