An overview of biomarkers for the ovarian cancer diagnosis

Even though there are a lot of options in treating gynecological malignancies, ovarian cancer still remains a leading cause of death. Diagnosis at an early stage is the most important determinant of survival. Current diagnostic tools applied at clinics have had very limited success in early detection. Discovery of new diagnostic biomarkers/panels for early diagnosis of ovarian cancer is one of the main challenges of modem medicine. With the progress of techniques in genomics and proteomics, numerous molecular biomarkers/panels were identified and showed promise for ovarian cancer diagnosis, but still need further validation. This article summarizes various types of markers investigated by different strategies/technologies for the ovarian cancer diagnosis at present, including gene-, protein-based and emerging ovarian cancer indicators (such as microRNA-, metabolite-based). Before biomarker tests are translated for routine use, more researches, such as retrospective and prospective clinical trials, are needed to evaluate the overall clinical utility of the tests. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.