On-line Abstract Book

Cancer Fragmentomics: Identification of Carrier-protein Bound Ovarian Cancer Biomarkers

Mary Lopez¹, Scott Kuzdzal¹, Alvydas Mikulskis¹, David Sarracino², Martin O'Gorman⁶, David Fishman⁷, Kevin Rosenblatt⁵, Gordon Whiteley⁴, Emanuel Petricion³, Lance Liotta³

Correspondence address: Scott Kuzdzal, PerkinElmer Life, Molecular Medicine, 549 Albany Street, Boston, MA, 02118 United States.

Keywords: Biomarkers; MALDI; Mass Spectrometry, Ion Cyclotron Resonance; MS/MS.

Novel aspect: Early-stage ovarian cancer biomarkers were identified using a novel membrane based, scaleable carrier-protein bound biomarker enrichment platform that bridges the gap between high-throughput screening and accurate peptide sequencing.

 

Ovarian cancer is diagnosed using ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A CA-125 test is also used, in conjunction with imaging techniques, for surveillance of women at high-risk for ovarian cancer. These screening modalities are insufficient for detection of early stage ovarian cancer; almost 70 percent of women with common epithelial ovarian cancer are not diagnosed until the disease is in a advanced stage.

We herein report the identification of a protein fragment biomarker panel capable of diagnosing _early stage_ ovarian cancer with very high sensitivity (>93%) and specificity (>97%). We demonstrate the effective combination of high performance, high-throughput MALDI Orthogonal-TOF Mass Spectrometric screening of carrier-protein bound protein fragments and definitive biomarker candidate sequencing via MS/MS. Identifications of several differentially-expressed peptide biomarkers are presented.