Developing a growing cancer profile database based on quantitative analysis of protein biomarkers in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens.

Over a century of clinical practice has led to the accumulation of millions of archived formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) cancer specimens with detailed medical records worldwide. Absolute quantitation of clinical protein biomarkers in these FFPE specimens allows individual specimens to be profiled at the population level, with the absolute nature of the measurements enabling the continuous processing of archived FFPE specimens over the time. A continuously growing cancer patient profile database is proposed here to support "big data" profiling of these protein biomarkers alone or in combination, enabling next-generation retrospective-prospective analytics into the field of clinical diagnostics.