Project Description:

Professor Michael Jennings and colleagues have discovered a sugar-based biomarker called Neu5Gc which presents at high levels in the blood of patients with ovarian cancer and increases its levels as the cancer progresses. Now, with funding from the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, he and his team at Griffith University will validate the effectiveness of this biomarker by determining the level of Neu5Gc at each stage of ovarian cancer. The team will analyse samples from people who have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, against healthy samples, as well as those who are at a higher risk and will evaluate abnormal patterns in blood samples. This will allow them to determine the warning signs of cancer developing before it can become established. The team proposes to use modern MRI technology to scan for early ovarian cancers and to determine the pathology of each lesion based on cellular chemistry. This provides a preoperative diagnosis of benign or malignant.