%0 Journal Article
%T Application of Proteomics to Soft Tissue Sarcomas
%A Tadashi Kondo
%A Daisuke Kubota
%A Akira Kawai
%J International Journal of Proteomics
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/876401
%X Soft tissue sarcomas are rare and account for less than 1% of all malignant cancers. Other than development of intensive therapies, the clinical outcome of patients with soft tissue sarcoma remains very poor, particularly when diagnosed at a late stage. Unique mutations have been associated with certain soft tissue sarcomas, but their etiologies remain unknown. The proteome is a functional translation of a genome, which directly regulates the malignant features of tumors. Thus, proteomics is a promising approach for investigating soft tissue sarcomas. Various proteomic approaches and clinical materials have been used to address clinical and biological issues, including biomarker development, molecular target identification, and study of disease mechanisms. Several cancer-associated proteins have been identified using conventional technologies such as 2D-PAGE, mass spectrometry, and array technology. The functional backgrounds of proteins identified were assessed extensively using in vitro experiments, thus supporting expression analysis. These observations demonstrate the applicability of proteomics to soft tissue sarcoma studies. However, the sample size in each study was insufficient to allow conclusive results. Given the low frequency of soft tissue sarcomas, multi-institutional collaborations are required to validate the results of proteomic approaches. 1. General Background of Soft Tissue Sarcomas Soft tissue sarcomas are defined as malignancies that originate from nonepithelial extraskeletal tissues, excluding the reticuloendothelial system, glia, and supporting tissue of parenchymal organs [1].Thus, soft tissue sarcomas may occur anywhere in the body including fibrous tissues, adipose tissues, muscles, vessels, and peripheral nerves. Thus, soft tissue sarcomas are a highly heterogeneous tumor group that is classified histogenetically. Clinically, soft tissue sarcomas range from curable tumors to those causing death via metastasis and recurrence. Thus, histological classification is accompanied by grading and staging information, which depends on clinical and pathological observations, to assess the degree of malignancy, predict prognosis, and evaluate possible therapies. Genetic alterations such as recurrent chromosomal translocations and genetic deregulations have been reported in soft tissue sarcomas. For example, chimeric genes have been reported in Ewing sarcoma, alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), desmoplastic small round cell tumor, clear cell sarcoma (CCS), myxoid/round cell liposarcoma, myxoid chondrosarcoma, synovial sarcoma, alveolar soft
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijpro/2012/876401/