Mass Spectrometric Immunoassay for Parathyroid Hormone Related Protein (PTHrP)

Many cancers, including prostate, breast and lung express parathyroid hormone related protein (PTHrP). Despite the common tumor overexpression of PTHrP, serum levels of PTHrP are not commonly elevated in affected patients. They postulate that the reasons for the discrepancy between tissue and serum measurements of PTHrP are the inadequate sensitivity and specificity of current PTHrP serum assays. To improve the clinical value of PTHrP serum assays for the cancer patient, they are developing a new generation of novel and ultrasensitive PTHrP serum immunoassays based on immunoaffinity purification, nanospray liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)