New blood test detects early stage ovarian cancer

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Research on a bacterial toxin first discovered in Adelaide has led to the development a new blood test for the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer—a disease which kills over 1000 Australian women and 150,000 globally each year.

The new blood test has the potential to dramatically improve early detection of the disease, although it will require further testing before it is available for clinicians.

A research team from the University of Adelaide and Griffith University have been studying the interactions between the toxin and an abnormal glycan (sugar) expressed on the surface of human cancer cells and released into the blood.

The team has now engineered a harmless portion of the toxin to enhance its specificity for the cancer glycan and used this to detect it in blood samples from women with ovarian cancer.

A new method to improve the pre-operative diagnosis of ovarian cancer based on ultrasound

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"In a landmark study, investigators from Europe propose a new and simple method to assess the risk of malignancy of women with an adnexal mass. The method identified between 89-99% of patients with ovarian cancer using the results of ultrasound examination, which can be obtained in referral and non-referral centers. 

The work is based on the "Simple Rules", criteria developed by the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) group to improve accurate diagnosis of ovarian cancer before surgery. Published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, this new approach has the potential to level and raise the playing field and put expert interpretation and improved diagnostic capability within reach of all practitioners.

While ovarian cancer is a common and potentially lethal disease, early detection and treatment improve survival. However, adnexal masses, ovarian masses or cysts that persist and become enlarged, often pose a diagnostic dilemma because preoperative tests to determine if they are benign or malignant are often inconclusive. 

The IOTA group developed a set of "Simple Rules" based on ultrasound images of the adnexal masses, which allows them to be classified as either benign or malignant..."

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