藉由「早期發現，早期治療」的方式，我們可以降低癌症的死亡率。因此找出與癌症病變有關的生物標記以期及早發現與治療是一項重要的工作。本研究分析了包含正常人以及攝護腺癌症病人實際的蛋白質質譜資料，而這些蛋白質質譜資料是來自於表面強化雷射解吸電離飛行質譜技術（SELDI-TOF MS）的蛋白質晶片實驗。表面增強雷射脫附遊離飛行時間質譜技術可有效地留存生物樣本的蛋白質特徵。如果沒有經過適當的事前處理步驟以消除實驗雜訊，ㄧ 個質譜中可能包含多於數百或數千的特徵變數。為了加速對於可能的蛋白質生物標記的搜尋，我們只考慮可以區分癌症病人與正常人的特徵變數。
基因演算法是一種類似生物基因演化的總體最佳化搜尋機制，它可以有效地在高維度空間中去尋找可能的最佳解。本研究中，我們利用仿基因演算法(GAL)進行蛋白質的特徵選取以區分癌症病人與正常人。另外，我們提出兩種兩階段仿基因演算法(TSGAL)，以嘗試改善仿基因演算法的缺點。

Early detection and diagnosis can effectively reduce the mortality of cancer. The discovery of biomarkers for the early detection and diagnosis of cancer is thus an important task. In this study, a real proteomic spectra data set of prostate cancer patients and normal patients was analyzed. The data were collected from a Surface-Enhanced Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS) experiment. The SELDI-TOF MS technology captures protein features in a biological sample. Without suitable pre-processing steps to remove experimental noise, a mass spectrum could consists of more than hundreds or thousands of peaks. To narrow down the search for possible protein biomarkers, only those features that can distinguish between cancer and normal patients are selected.
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