The promise of gene signatures in cancer diagnosis and prognosis

Gene-expression profiling is a relatively new technology that has promise for developing mathematical models that might be useful in predicting diagnoses and prognoses for a number of different cancer types. While the promise of this approach has not yet been realized, there is accumulating evidence that this approach is feasible. Extensive validation of all molecular classifiers with large independent test sets will be necessary prior to clinical application. Keywords: microarray; prognosis; diagnosis; gene profiling; gene signature