Glycans are important partners in many biological processes, including
carcinogenesis. The rapidly developing field of functional glycomics becomes one of the frontiers of biology and biomedicine. Aberrant glycosylation of
proteins and
lipids occurs commonly during malignant transformation and leads to the expression of specific
tumor-associated
glycans. The appearance of aberrant
glycans on
carcinoma cells is typically associated with grade, invasion,
metastasis and overall poor prognosis.
Cancer-associated
carbohydrates are mostly located on the surface of
cancer cells and are therefore potential diagnostic
biomarkers. Currently, there is increasing interest in
cancer-associated aberrant glycosylation, with growing numbers of characteristic
cancer targets being detected every day. Breast and
ovarian cancer are the most common and lethal
malignancies in women, respectively, and potential
glycan biomarkers hold promise for early detection and targeted
therapies. However, the acceleration of research and comprehensive multi-target investigation of
cancer-specific
glycans could only be successfully achieved with the help of a combination of novel high-throughput glycomic approaches.