A NEWLY discovered protein could pave the way to a simple pregnancy test-style check for early ovarian cancer and substantially improve survival rates.
The research, unveiled today at the British Science Festival, offers hope of a potential breakthrough against the disease which claims around 350 lives a year in Scotland.
Read more: Warning ovarian cancer symptoms being missed by GPs
Dr Barbara Guinn, a cancer immunologist at the University of Hull, told the conference that she has identified a new protein biomarker which is elevated in ovarian cancer patients at stage one and two of the disease, allowing for much earlier detection, diagnosis and treatment.
The disease is currently notoriously difficult to spot early, which leads to very poor survival rate – as low as 5% when the disease is identified in stage 4.
Dr Guinn said: “The majority of diagnoses for ovarian cancer come during stage three, when the cancer has spread to other areas of the body, which has a direct impact on the chances of patients’ surviving.
"A stage three diagnosis can mean survival rates as low as 20%, but with early detection, that can be increased dramatically to around 90%."
It has previously been found that proteins can act as biomarkers, which help diagnose diseases early, but this has not previously been a focus of research in detecting ovarian cancer.
Read more: New ovarian cancer drug for women without BRCA gene
Dr Guinn and colleagues discovered the protein - known only amOCP (ovarian cancer protein) to protect the discovery - after screening libraries of diseased tissue, known as tissue arrays.
A key feature of the protein is its presence in early stage diseased tissues, higher than other established biomarkers, with up to 18% of stage 1, 36% of stage 2 and 17% of stage 3 tissue samples expressing the protein.
A key challenge now faced by the team is to identify whether the protein - which is very small - passes into urine.
This would ensure its usefulness for diagnostic testing, in a test similar to the one used for pregnancy testing.
The road to a urine-based diagnostic test being available in the clinic is still long – but the researchers are hopeful that a test could become a reality within two to three years.
Unlike breast, cervical and bowel cancer, there is currently no screening programme for ovarian cancer.
The disease also tends to be diagnosed at a later stage because symptoms - such as persistent bloating, abdominal pain and irregular bowel movements - are often mistaken for more common conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome.
A blood test which checks for a protein known as CA125 which can be elevated in patients with ovarian cancer is currently not recommended as a routine screening tool as it can throw up false negatives, wrongly giving the impression a woman is cancer-free, and can flag up other conditions such as endometriosis.
Read more: Surge in requests for blood test which can detect ovarian cancer patients
However, Professor Bob Steele, a Dundee-based cancer expert who was appointed chair of the UK National Screening Committee in 2016, has previously said ovarian cancer - together with lung and prostate cancer - should be prioritised for new screening programmes if emerging research demonstrated that the potential benefit would outweigh the harm.
The British Science Festival will run until September 14 in Hull.
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