Grant: Proof of Principle Program - Phase I

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the Western world, the second most common gynecological cancer and the leading cause of death from gynecological malignancies. Early detection of ovarian cancer is rare and screening programs in the general population have for the most part been unsuccessful. Largely asymptomatic, over 70% of patients with ovarian cancer are diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease. Early detection and the optimal clinical management of the cancer patient remain important objectives in the field of ovarian cancer. The only marker clinically used to follow the disease, CA125, is neither sufficiently sensitive nor specific to be used as a general screening tool. Thus there is an urgent need to discover and validate new serum based markers to be used in combination with CA125 for early disease detection.We have identified 10 additional putative blood markers that could increase the sensitivity and specificity of a blood-based test. Here we want to refine a way to test these markers simultaneously, and develop a decision making tool, that would allow us to market this test for the early detection of ovarian cancer.