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Joyce F. Liu, MD, MPH
Joyce F. Liu, MD, MPH
Posted: Tuesday, February 25, 2025
A clinical trial of a blood test to detect early-stage ovarian cancer will begin at The University of Queensland (UQ) this year. About 1,500 women from across Queensland will be recruited to take part in this study to determine the suitability of this test for population-based screening for this type of gynecologic cancer.
“Rapid and accurate identification of asymptomatic ovarian cancer will dramatically improve survival rates,” stated Professor Carlos Salomon Gallo, PhD, Director of the UQ Centre for Extracellular Vesicle Nanomedicine, in an institutional press release. “In this study, we will confirm the performance of the test under real-world conditions, which will involve the collection of blood samples from multiple sites throughout Queensland and their shipment to a central laboratory for analysis.”
Professor Salomon Gallo’s team developed the screening test. It targets extracellular vesicles produced by cells that contain proteomic and genomic information that signal the presence of cancer. It reportedly has been evaluated on more than 500 blood samples and has demonstrated an overall accuracy of 94%. “Another advantage of this test is the extremely low false-positive rate of 4% in previous studies, which makes it a suitable candidate as a screening tool,” Professor Salomon Gallo added.
The 5-year program has received grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council in partnership with the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation and the Lions Medical Research Foundation in collaboration with Mater Research and Queensland Centre for Gynaecological Cancer Research.
