Patent ID: 8710429

Claim:
A method of identifying biomarkers in liquid biological samples from cancer patients, comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining a plurality of first liquid biological samples, wherein the plurality of first liquid biological samples are obtained from patients having the same type of cancer; (b) obtaining a plurality of second liquid biological samples, wherein the plurality of second liquid biological samples are obtained from normal, healthy patients; (c) directly subjecting the plurality of first liquid biological samples and the plurality of second liquid biological samples to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI MS) to produce a mass spectrum profile for each liquid biological sample; (d) constructing a first database comprising peaks present in the mass spectrum profiles of the plurality of first liquid biological samples; (e) constructing a second database comprising peaks present in the mass spectrum profiles of the plurality of second liquid biological samples; (f) comparing the second database to the first database to identify at least one series of statistically significant peaks that distinguish the plurality of liquid biological samples obtained from cancer patients from the plurality of liquid biological samples obtained from healthy patients; and (g) determining that the at least one series of statistically significant peaks identified in (f) comprise at least one biomarker related to the type of cancer.