Personalized protease assay to measure protease activity in neoplasms

Disclosed herein, the invention pertains to methods and compositions that find use in diagnostic, prognostic and characterization of neoplasia samples based on the ability of a neoplasia sample to cleave a MTS molecule of the present invention. In some embodiments, a MTS molecule disclosed herein has the formula (A-X-B-C), wherein A is a peptide with a sequence comprising 5 to 9 consecutive acidic amino acids, wherein the amino acids are selected from: aspartates and glutamates; B is a peptide with a sequence comprising 5 to 20 consecutive basic amino acids; X is a linker; and C is a detectable moiety.