Clinical relevance
Malignant brain tumors, whether primary or secondary, are among the
deadliest cancers with poor prognosis and short patient survival.
Despite advances in understanding the driver gene mutation and
heterogeneity within tumor cells, there is limited information about
proteomic changes. The aim of our study was to construct a systemic
proteome of those two typical malignant tumors in human brain: primary
(gliomas) and secondary (brain metastases) tumors, and dig out their
heterogeneities for disease type-specific diagnosis and therapy. In the
current work, conserved protein patterns were found in brain metastases.
Among gliomas, proteomic heterogeneities were confirmed in different
grades of gliomas, which can serve as novel diagnostic biomarkers for
glioma subgrouping. In addition, distinct pathway-level differences
among two types of brain malignancies were firstly summarized, and five
newly discovered proteins were recognized as candidate biomarker to
discriminate primary and secondary tumors.