Toward An Early Diagnostic Test For Ovarian Cancer

In an advance toward eventual development of a much-needed early diagnostic test for ovarian cancer, scientists have identified at least 15 biomarkers for the disease that are present in cancer patients but absent in healthy individuals. Carlito B. Lebrilla and colleagues at the University of California at Davis describe the discovery in a report scheduled for the July 7 issue of the ACS Journal of Proteome Research.

No accurate test for early diagnosis of ovarian cancer currently exists. Many of the 23,000 annual cases are diagnosed only after the disease is advanced and more difficult to treat. Lebrilla's group identified the biomarkers -- which could become the basis of a test -- with an exciting new technology spawned by the human genome project. Called glycomics, it focuses on the structure and function of chains of sugars or "oligosaccharides" that have key functions in the body.

The scientists identified and studied oligosaccharides in substances that ovarian cancer cells shed during growth. Some had never been detected before. Researchers now are moving ahead with studies involving more patients and controls in an effort to find biomarkers that could be used in an ovarian cancer test.

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