Ovarian Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Ovarian Cancer, including details on symptoms, causes, treatment, information.

Biomarker discovery for ovarian cancer using SELDI-TOF-MS.

Zhang H, Kong B, Qu X, Jia L, Deng B, Yang Q

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Ji'nan 250012, Shandong Province, PR China.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to discover potential biomarkers for the detection and monitoring of adjuvant chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. METHODS: Serum samples from ovarian cancers and non-cancer controls were analyzed using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS). To discover the possible diagnostic biomarker for ovarian cancer, a preliminary training set of spectra derived from 31 primary ovarian cancer patients, 16 patients with benign ovarian diseases, and 25 healthy women was used to develop a proteomic model that discriminated cancer from non-cancer effectively. A blind test set, including 43 new cases, was used to validate the sensitivity and specificity of this multivariate model. To explore treatment-induced serum protein change, the protein profiles generated from 16 postoperative patients before chemotherapy are compared with those obtained after chemotherapy. RESULTS: A Four-peak model was established in the training set that discriminated cancer from non-cancer with sensitivity of 90.8% and specificity of 93.5%. A sensitivity of 87.0% and a specificity of 95.0% for the blind test were obtained, compared with 60.7%, 55% for CA125 for the same samples. These 4 markers performed significantly better than the current standard marker, CA125 (P < 0.05). One protein peak (mass/charge ratio [m/z], 4,475) was identified in 12 of 16 (75%) postoperative patients after chemotherapy, but was absent before chemotherapy. CONCLUSION: The proteins represented by these peaks are candidate biomarkers for ovarian cancer diagnosis and/or monitoring treatment response.

Published 16 June 2006 in Gynecol Oncol, 102(1): 61-6.
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