Second year student at CRUK CI
The majority of women with ovarian cancer have widespread disease at diagnosis, fewer than 20% will survive 5 years. Conversely over 90% of women with localised disease will survive over 5 years. New diagnostic biomarkers enabling earlier detection are urgently needed. I have developed sensitive molecular profiling methods to detect tumour DNA in blood from women with newly diagnosed, including localised, ovarian cancer. I am establishing a clinical study with large cohorts of symptomatic women. If sensitivity and specificity are promising these methods could be transferred to primary care to triage symptomatic women, leading to earlier diagnosis and saving lives.
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