Novel blood test to detect ovarian cancer at an early stage shows promising results

A new blood test developed by researchers from Adelaide, Australia has the potential to diagnose early and late stage ovarian cancer. The test is engineered from a bacterial toxin and is highly effective in detecting levels of a specific biomarker released in blood by the tumor cells.

With lack of early-stage symptoms and no known definitive screening test, ovarian cancer is difficult to detect at early stages. However, it has a 90% five-year survival rate if detected early as opposed to only 20% five-year survival if detected at the later stages.

The research was published in the November issue of the Journal of Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.

Human tumor cells undergo aberrant glycosylation and release N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc)-containing glycans in the bloodstream. The researchers from University of Adelaide and Griffith University noted that a subunit of toxin produced by Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli recognizes Neu5Gc containing glycans and can be used as a test to detect the abnormal glycans in sera of ovarian cancer patients.

The research team previously used a Neu5Gc-specific lectin, SubB2M, to enhance recognition of Neu5Gc-containing glycans but in the study, they utilized the optical detection technique of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) to detect the binding between SubB2M and Neu5Gc in sera of cancer patients.

In a study involving 69 patients, which included 22 healthy patients and the rest were from all four stages of ovarian cancer, the team showed that Neu5Gc-containing tumor antigens have the potential to serve as diagnostic markers for detection of early-stage ovarian cancer.

Neu5Gc were increased in a majority of stage I/II ovarian cancer and is also uniformly elevated in stage IIIC and IV of ovarian cancer. The test showed a sensitivity of 90% for detection of ovarian cancer for stage I/II, that increased to 100% for stages III and IV of cancer.

“Ovarian cancer is notoriously difficult to detect in its early stages, when there are more options for treatment and survival rates are better. Our new test is, therefore, a potential game changer,” says Professor James Paton, Director of the University of Adelaide’s Research Centre for Infectious Diseases in a media release.

Ovarian cancer is responsible for more cancer deaths than any other cancer of female reproductive tract and ranks fifth in all cancer deaths among women. According to The American Cancer Society, about 22,240 women will receive a new diagnosis of ovarian cancer, and about 14,070 women will die from ovarian cancer in 2018.

The team is currently planning on more extensive studies and looking for commercial partners to bring the test into the market as early as possible.

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