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Review
. 2019 Jun 4;11(6):774.
doi: 10.3390/cancers11060774.

Liquid Biopsies for Ovarian Carcinoma: How Blood Tests May Improve the Clinical Management of a Deadly Disease

Roxane Mari  1   2 , Emilie Mamessier  3 , Eric Lambaudie  4   5 , Magali Provansal  6 , Daniel Birnbaum  7 , François Bertucci  8   9 , Renaud Sabatier  10   11
Affiliations
Review

Liquid Biopsies for Ovarian Carcinoma: How Blood Tests May Improve the Clinical Management of a Deadly Disease

Roxane Mari et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Ovarian cancers (OvC) are frequent, with more than 22,000 new cases each year for 14,000 deaths in the United States. Except for patients with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, diagnostic methods, prognostic tools, and therapeutic strategies have not much improved in the last two decades. High throughput tumor molecular analyses have identified important alterations involved in ovarian carcinoma growth and spreading. However, these data have not modified the clinical management of most of patients. Moreover, tumor sample collection requires invasive procedures not adapted to objectives, such as the screening, prediction, or assessment of treatment efficacy, monitoring of residual disease, and early diagnosis of relapse. In recent years, circulating tumor biomarkers (also known as "liquid biopsies") such as circulating tumor cells, circulating nucleotides (DNA or miRNA), or extracellular vesicles, have been massively explored through various indications, platforms, and goals, but their use has not yet been validated in routine practice. This review describes the methods of analysis and results related to liquid biopsies for ovarian epithelial cancer. The different settings that a patient can go through during her journey with OvC are explored: screening and early diagnosis, prognosis, prediction of response to systemic therapies for advanced stages, and monitoring of residual subclinical disease.

Keywords: circulating exosomes; circulating miRNA; circulating tumor DNA; circulating tumor cells; liquid biopsies; ovarian cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Circulating tumor DNA applications for ovarian cancer management. Detection and monitoring of genomic alterations with approved therapies or phase 2/3 clinical trials available (top). Potential use of circulating tumor DNA for various clinical settings (bottom); inspired from [49].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Description of circulating tumor cell (CTC) origins, biological features required to survive blood stream pressures, and abilities facilitating metastases development.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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