Proteomics-based identification of potential protein biomarkers for epithelial ovarian cancer

Abstract

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is one of the most common gynaecological cancers and is a leading cause of death in women worldwide. Using the proteomics-based methods the differentially expressed haptoglobin and ceruloplasmin were identified in cyst fluid from malignant when compared with benign ovarian tumours. Our data indicated that elevated serum haptoglobin levels were associated with poor outcome for overall survival using both uni- and multivariate analyses. The potential application in clinics using cyst fluid haptoglobin levels as an intra-operative diagnostic method was also tested. It showed that haptoglobin had an enhanced predictive performance when combined with CA-125 and ultrasound parameters giving 88.4% sensitivity and 91.5% specificity with a PPV of 90.5% and NPV of 89.6% for EOCs. Such intra-operative cyst fluid determination of haptoglobin levels using a simple test kit has potential clinical significance to triage women requiring frozen section or sub-specialist consult.