Endoscopy 2004; 36 - 55
DOI: 10.1055/s-2004-825037

Differentiation of Tumour from Normal Colorectal Tissue by SELDI-MS Protein Profiling

AM Lennon 1, D Stuart 1, AC Tan 1, E Fox 1, KS Sheahan 1, JM Hyland 1, DP O'Donoghue 1, B Brown 1
  • 1Department of Medical Oncology, Beatson Institute, Glasgow University. Department of Biostatistics, Glasgow University, Glasgow, Scotland. The Centre for Colorectal Disease, St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin

Introduction Surface enhanced laser desorption ionisation mass spectrometry (SELDI-MS) is a technique which has been used to study proteomic patterns in cell lines, tumour material and serum samples but has yet to studied in colorectal cancer tissue specimens. This was a feasibility study to determine if SELDI-MS was able to differentiate tumour from normal colorectal tissue specimens.

Methods 210 proteomic spectra were generated from 95 normal and tumour tissue samples. Ciphergen Biomarker Wizard was used to identify significant peptide peaks. An in-house decision analysis tree was then used to differentiate the two sample types.

Results The decision analysis tree was able to differentiate colorectal tumour from normal tissue with a sensitivity and specificity of 83.7% and 87% for tumour and 87% and 83.7% for normal samples.

Discussion This study has shown that SELDI-MS protein profiling can distinguish between tumour and normal colorectal tissue with a high degree of sensitivity and specificity.