A metabolomic profile may hold the key for screening for early-stage ovarian cancer, according to a study published Nov. 17 in Scientific Reports. Researchers identified a profile of 16 blood-based diagnostic metabolites that could distinguish early-stage ovarian cancer patients with 100 percent accuracy. The researchers say these markers may yield a "clinically significant" diagnostic test with further validation. Ovarian cancer is notoriously difficult to diagnose early, often leading to unsuccessful treatment. Given the low prevalence of the disease in the general population (0.1 percent in the United States), a screening test must attain "stringent accuracy," which the authors define as a positive predictive value of at least 10 percent, a specificity of more than 99 percent and a sensitivity of 75 percent or higher to be of clinical relevance in the general population. Current screening methods (trans-vaginal ultrasound combined with serum CA-125 levels) achieve a positive predictive value of only 24 percent. "People have been looking at proteins for diagnosis of ovarian cancer for a couple of decades, and the results have not been very impressive," said co-author Facundo Fernández, Ph.D., from Georgia Institute of Technology, in a statement. "We decided to look in a different place for molecules that […]