BACKGROUND: Glycosylation is a posttranslational modification responsible for many bio-logical processes including protein-protein interactions, cell signaling or cell cycle regulation. Changes in glycosylation of serum proteins reflects the status of tissues and cells in the organism and therefore can be used as markers for dia-gnosis of cancer, its progression and determination of its subtypes. N-glycan profiling is often used for characterization of N-glycosylation changes. It is based on the measurements of N-glycans released from the serum proteins. Beside the N-glycan profiling, glycoproteomic approach is emerging as it preserves the information about glycan composition, original protein, and its glycosylation sites. PURPOSE: This review covers existing works describing the changes in serum protein N-glycosylation in various cancer types. Attention was paid to both the glycomic and glycoproteomic approaches. The last part of the review shortly presents the analytical methods used for these analyses.

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