Identifying potential tumor markers and antigens by database mining and rapid expression screening

Genes expressed specifically in malignant tissue may have potential as ther apeutic targets but have been difficult to locate for most cancers. The inf ormation hidden within certain public databases can reveal RNA transcripts specifically expressed in transformed tissue. To be useful, database inform ation must be verified and a more complete pattern of tissue expression mus t be demonstrated. We tested database mining plus rapid screening by fluore scent-PCR expression comparison (F-PEC) as an approach to locate candidate brain tumor antigens. Cancer Genome Anatomy Project (CGAP) data was mined f or genes highly expressed in glioblastoma multiforme. From 13 mined genes, seven showed potential as possible tumor markers or antigens as determined by further expression profiling. Now that large-scale expression informatio n is readily available for many of the commonly occurring cancers, other ca ndidate tumor markers or antigens could be located and evaluated with this approach.