American-Polish test for early diagnosis of ovarian cancer

The test was developed by researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston together with a team of researchers from the Medical University of Lodz, which sent a press release to PAP. The team\'s results have been published in the prestigious journal eLife.

The test is based on the measurement of the amount of microRNA in the peripheral blood and allows to detect cancer irrespective of its histological type, stage or patient\'s age. Potentially, the test can contribute to earlier detection of ovarian cancer and increase the chances of survival.

Ovarian cancer still has the worst prognosis among gynaecological cancers. In Poland it is the fourth leading cause of cancer death among women. Every year over 3,000 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed in our country. According to the National Cancer Registry data, only 42.6% patients live 5 years after diagnosis.

Symptoms accompanying this disease are non-specific (lack of appetite, constipation, flatulence, lower abdominal pain, change in urinary frequency) and suggest problems with the digestive system. 70% cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed at an advanced stage, which gives little chance of survival. Only 25% women diagnosed in advanced stage live 5 years after diagnosis.

The objective of the Polish-American team was to develop an effective diagnostic test that would detect the disease at an earlier stage and, as a result, reduce mortality.

The test is based on the measurement of the number of copies of several miRNAs in the blood - small, non-coding ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules that enter the bloodstream from cells. Evaluation of the entire profile of microRNAs circulating in the blood (about one thousand) is very expensive, and tests based on one or two miRNAs often fail to produce reliable results due to the high dynamics of their serum levels and low miRNA specificity for particular diseases.

Researchers have used the latest quantitative RNA sequencing techniques and a number of statistical methods to create a simple test based on real-time measurement of seven miRNAs with polymerase chain reaction method. Although it is not known exactly what role this miRNAs play in ovarian cancer, they appear to be linked to it.

"Using a simple laboratory technique to obtain the diagnostic data required by the algorithm increases the potential of the developed test in clinical practice. The innovativeness of the article and the tool we have published lies in the use of artificial intelligence techniques, including artificial neural networks, to analyse the complex relationships between multiple miRNAs. With advanced analytical tools we have created a tool that outclasses the tools currently available in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer" - said co-author Dr. Wojciech Fendler, quoted in the release sent to PAP.

Clinical trials included nearly 500 women - in both the United States and the Regional Multidisciplinary Centre for Oncology and Traumatology in Łódź.

The published results show that the test is has better diagnostic properties than the commonly used CA125 protein. The team has now started the second phase of research into the use and calibration of the test for repeat-diagnosis of patients at high risk for ovarian cancer.

The Polish members of the research team are Dr. Wojciech Fendler and Konrad Stawiski, MD, from the Department of Biostatistics and Translational Medicine, and Dr. Magdalena Kędzierska from the Department of Chemotherapy, Medical University of Lodz.

Complete publication "Diagnostic potential for a serum miRNA neural network for detection of ovarian cancer" is available pm the journal website (https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.28932). The algorithm can be viewed using the on-line application created for the project at http://biostat.umed.pl/ovaries.

The diagnostic algorithm is the subject of a joint patent application in the United States. Dr. Fendler\'s research is financed by the First TEAM project f the Foundation for Polish Science. (PAP)

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