Early detection of cancer is the key to improving survival. Since most clinically used serum cancer biomarkers are either glycoproteins or glycan structures that can be recognized by specific monoclonal antibodies, developing glycan structure-based biomarkers from human serum/plasma glycoproteins through mass spectrometry (MS) analysis are active research field during the past decades. Numerous studies have shown that changes in serum/plasma glycan structures occur during cancer initiation, progression, and treatment. This review describes N- and O-linked glycan structures identified from serum/plasma glycoprotein (s) by MS analysis with focus on alterations associated with different types of human cancers. The global changes in serum N- and O-linked glycan structures, especially the glycans that are not made by cancer cells such as B lymphocyte-derived IgG and liver-synthesized haptoglobin and α1 acid glycoprotein, suggest that glycans might be the long sought diagnostic biomarkers associated with system malfunction in the blood circulation of cancer patients. Therefore, N- and O-linked glycan structures have great potential to serve as cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment monitoring biomarkers to facilitate personalized medicine.
Keywords: N-glycans; O-glycans; biomarker; cancer; serum.