Molecular signal in blood helps detect ovarian cancer risk early, study finds | Ovarian cancer

A molecular signal in the blood helps identify the microscopic changes that precede the development of ovarian cancer, researchers have found, a potential diagnostic advance for a disease often discovered after it has already spread.

For decades, efforts to detect ovarian cancer earlier have focused on finding smaller tumors, the researchers noted in their report published Tuesday in Nature Medicine.

“We asked a fundamentally different question: What if we could identify early molecular warning signs before an invasive cancer even develops? Study leader Rajan Gogna of the Hoag Family Cancer Institute in Newport Beach, California, said in a statement.

Ovarian cancer often begins with microscopic changes in the lining of the fallopian tubes. Precancerous lesions are known as serous intraepithelial tubal carcinoma.

The new study found that women with this precursor disease had elevated blood levels of an RNA molecule called Tu-Stroma.

When researchers measured Tu-Stroma in the blood, they detected STIC in 92.3% of affected women and correctly identified 98.2% of healthy women.

In women with genetic risk factors for ovarian cancer, about 72% of positive results would be accurate, while negative results would be correct almost 100% of the time, they reported.

“For high-risk women, this could transform how we approach prevention,” co-author Dr. Esha Madan, also of Hoag, said in a statement.

Many of these women “face difficult decisions regarding preventative surgery to remove their fallopian tubes” and ovaries.

“Today, decisions about preventative surgery are largely guided by hereditary risk, with little knowledge of whether precancerous lesions are actually present,” Madan said. “Our discovery could potentially provide the missing biological information.”