Head and neck and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: biomarkers derived from genomics and proteomics

Resumo

The primary aim of the present project is to search for new tumor markers that may be relevant both for diagnosis, prognosis and classification of head and neck (HN) and esophageal (E) squamous cell carcinomas, and for more effective therapeutic measures. Specific aims include: (1) By using genomic and proteomic approaches, investigate differences in gene and protein expression profiles between HN/E carcinomas and their apparently normal counterparts. (2) Evaluate the structure of proteins which have potential of playing a functional role in the induction and/or sustenance of malignant phenotypes in humans. By molecular modeling, obtain three-dimensional structures of possible protein targets identified in the project. (3) By quantitative real time RT-PCR analysis, investigate the expression of markers identified in the projects FAPESP 00/103095-2, FAPESP 00/12739-0 and Clinical Genomics. (4) Determine the frequency of variants of expressed genes which showed evidence of alternative splicing in Human Cancer Genome Project. (AU)