The National Cancer Institute has funded an initiative to discover, develop, and clinically validate cancer biomarkers attributed to complex carbohydrate structures attached to proteins and lipids. Seven Tumor Glycome Laboratories are searching for glycan-based biomarkers for breast, ovarian, lung, prostate, pancreatic cancers and other epithelial cancers.



Numerous studies comparing normal and tumor cells have shown that changes in glycan structures on the cell correlate with cancer development. Compared to proteins, glycans are found in greater numbers and recent advances in technology have made effective systematic study of these structures amenable. The symposium will cover the cutting- edge technologies used by the Tumor Glycome Laboratories to discover biomarkers having clinical applications for cancer detection, prevention and diagnosis.


NCI/NIH-Sponsored Sessions: Glycomics for Detection of Cancer and Cancer Risk

Introduction to NCI's glycomics initiative; Sudhir Srivastava. National Cancer Inst., Rockville, MD

Introduction to Tumor Glycome Laboratories; Karl Krueger. National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD

Detection of autoantibodies and glycosylation variants in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer; Michael A. Hollingsworth. University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE

Novel fucosylated biomarkers for the early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma; Anand S. Mehta. Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA

Anti-Neu5Gc antibodies as a potential cancer biomarker; Richard Schwab. University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA,