Tumor markers and antigens are normally highly expressed in malignant tissu
e, but not in the surrounding normal tissue. Serial Analysis of Gene Expres
sion (SAGE) is a technology that counts mRNA transcripts and can be used to
find those genes most highly induced in malignant tissues. SAGE produces a
comprehensive profile of gene expression and can be used to search for tum
or biomarkers in a limited number of samples. Public sources of SAGE data,
in particular through the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project, increase the value
of this technology by making a large source of information on many tumors
and normal tissues available for comparison. Although the perfect tumor-spe
cific gene does not exist, the differences in gene expression between tumor
and normal can be exploited for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes.