Short Non-coding RNA Biomarkers of Predisposition to Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most lethal female reproductive malignancy, mainly because 80% of tumors have metastasized beyond the ovary at the time of diagnosis. Screening efforts aimed at improved identification of early stage disease have been largely unsuccessful, because of ovarian cancer's propensity for early spread. Our hypothesis is that this obstacle can be circumvented by identifying biomarkers for the precancerous stage of this disease. Since this pre-cancerous stage is currently undetectable, we instead propose to look for biomarkers in women at very high risk for developing ovarian cancer due to genetic mutations. We hypothesize that identification of markers for genetic predisposition to ovarian cancer will also be informative for detection of biological changes that over time lead to sporadic cancers. Given their increasingly recognized role in states of normal and abnormal growth and differentiation, we hypothesize that short non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) hold significant promise as biomarkers of ovarian cancer predisposition. We will test these hypotheses in two aims. First, we will identify biomarkers for hereditary ovarian cancer risk by comparing serum-derived sncRNAs in women with and without hereditary risk for ovarian cancer. In the second aim we will define serum-derived sncRNAs correlates of ovarian cancer disease status. We will compare sera from ovarian cancer patients at times of highest and lowest disease burden to those of control, cancer-free subjects. Each aim will provide independent, novel, and important information for future investigations. The sncRNAs found to be differentially expressed in both aims will be prioritized for future validation in women under clinical surveillance for hereditary risk of ovarian cancer.