Molecular oncology in the post-genomic era: the challenge of proteomics

One of the greatest challenges in modern medicine is to dissect the cascade of molecular events that lead to the development and progression of tumors. The genome-wide study of proteins embodies the exciting promise of proteomics. Unlike genomics, proteomics aims ambitiously to study not only protein expression profiles but also protein functions, which should provide researchers with a more comprehensive view of the molecular machinery that governs tumor biology. Recent technological advances are making proteomics a user-friendly, high-throughput laboratory tool that is likely to have an unprecedented impact on the pace of discovery in medicine.