Diagnosis of ovarian cancer and biomarkers

Abstract

Ovarian cancer; worldwide, ranks seventh among the types of cancer seen in women. Since the disease does not show symptoms at an early stage, it is usually detected at stage III and stage IV. In other words, early diagnosis of ovarian cancer is quite difficult. Although certain methods are used to detect ovarian cancer, there is no exact method that can give results at an early stage yet. Biomarkers are an important criterion for studies in this sense. CA-125 (cancer antigen 125 or carcinoma antigen 125), VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor), Osteopontin and Kallikrein proteins are some biomarkers that are looked at from the blood and can be used for the diagnosis of ovarian cancer. When the VEGF levels in the blood of patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer were examined, it was found that they were high and caused the accumulation of peritoneal fluid. It has been found that patients with serous epithelial adenocarcinoma ovarian cancer with low VEGF levels survive more than those with high VEGF levels. This has shown that VEGF is an important biomarker for early diagnosis of ovarian cancer, and studies can focus on it.