Background: Ovarian cancer is a major cause of mortality in the globe related to gynaecological cancer and this is primarily attributed to late diagnosis and non-existence of effective early screening reagents. Objective: The purpose of the research was to assess the diagnostic abilities of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as a liquid biopsy method to detect ovarian cancer in its initial phases of progression. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional analytical study that will be conducted at Gynaeoncology unit at Lady Willingdon hospital/ King Edward Medical University, Lahore between March and August 2025. The study involved 105 female patients who had suspected ovarian masses. Blood samples were taken before the operation, and ctDNA was isolated and sequenced by digital droplet PCR and next-generation sequencing of tumor-related mutations. Results: The median age of the patients was 52.67/11.41 years and 59.0% of them were postmenopausal. Histopathology identified ovarian malignancy in 82 patients (78.1) and benign lesions in 23 patients (21.9). ctDNA was detected in 72 malignant lesions (87.8) of which 20 lesions were at an early stage of cancer (76.9). The overall sensitivity of ctDNA was 87.8, specificity 87.0, PPV 96.0, NPV of 66.7 and AUC 0.91. Comparatively, CA-125 was less sensitive (72.0%) and specificity (65.2%). Conclusion: ctDNA proved to have a high diagnostic accuracy over CA-125 and had potential to determine early ovarian cancer. Its integration into the clinical practice, in addition to the traditional approaches, might lead to better diagnosis and outcomes in the early stages.
Zubair et al. (Wed,) studied this question.