Extracellular Vesicle Proteomic Fingerprinting of Ovarian Cancer for Early Detection with a Nanoengineered Microsystem
PROJECT SUMMARY Ovarian cancer is a silent killer that strikes with few, if any, symptoms. By the time a woman knows she has it, the cancer is often advanced and the outlook grim. However, if epithelial ovarian cancer is caught early the prognosis for the patient is excellent. Developing non-invasive and highly specific blood-based tests for pre- symptomatic screening and early detection of ovarian cancer is therefore crucial. This is especially essential since obtaining a biopsy is difficult, costly, and sometimes not even an option. In addition, most blood biomarkers to date lack the necessary sensitivity and specificity for early detection of this silent killer. A fundamental challenge is the extremely low concentrations of circulating biomolecules released from the developing tumors at pre-clinical stages which can be 10,000-fold lower than their clinically detectable levels. Therefore, there is a pressing need to uncover novel biomarkers, apply new strategies, and develop robust t