ABSTRACT: We aimed to discover and validate a panel of serum biomarkers for high grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) using our lectin-magnetic bead array-coupled proteomics platform. Serum from age-matched women with HGSOC, benign tumours or healthy controls were analysed in discovery (UKCTOCS, n=30 and UKOPS, n=30) and validation (Australian Ovarian Cancer Study, n=95) cohorts using shotgun and targeted proteomics, respectively. A 7-lectin discovery screen shortlisted 60 candidate proteins and 3 lectins for validation, which revealed elevated levels of AAL, SNA or STL-binding FIBB, CO9, ITIH3, HPT, A1AT, AACT in HGSOC, while IBP3, A2MG, PON1, CHLE and ALS were reduced. Multimarker panels were developed using generalized regression with lasso estimation and leave-one-out cross-validation. The best performing panel comprised of 13 peptides from Solanum Tuberosum lectin (STL)-binding proteins with 96.3% area under the receiver operating curve, 97.7% specificity and 78.6% sensitivity for distinguishing HGSOC from benign and healthy groups. The peptides robust in cross-validations were from IBP3, KNG1, CO9, THRB, HPTR, HPT, FINC, FA10, GELS. The validated serum biomarkers show promise for early detection of HGSOC and should be further evaluated.
Thomas Stoll 