Biomarkers are deemed to be potential tools in early diagnosis, therapeutic monitoring,and prognosis evaluation for cancer, with simplicity as well as economic advantages compared with computed tomography and biopsy. However, most of the current cancer biomarkers present insufficient sensitivity as well as specificity. Therefore, there is urgent requirement for the discovery of biomarkers for cancer. As one of the most exciting emerging technologies, protein array provides a versatile and robust platform in cancer proteomics research because it shows tremendous advantages of miniaturized features, high throughput, and sensitive detections in last decades. Here, we will present a relatively complete picture on the characteristics and advance of different types of protein arrays in application for biomarker discovery in cancer, and give the future perspectives in this area of research. Biomarkers are deemed to be potential tools in early diagnosis, therapeutic monitoring, and prognosis evaluation for cancer, with simplicity as well as economic attractive compared with computed tomography and biopsy. However, most of the current cancer biomarkers present insufficient sensitivity as well as specificity. As there of there is urgent requirement for the discovery of biomarkers for cancer. As one of the of elite of emerging technologies, protein array provides a versatile and robust platform in cancer proteomics research because it shows huge advantages of miniaturized features, high throughput, and sensitive detections In last decades. Here, we will present a relatively complete picture on the characteristics and advance of different types of protein arrays in application for biomarker discovery in cancer, and give the future perspectives in this area of ​​research.