Ovarian cancer early detection

Blood-based extracellular vesicle biomarkers for detecting ovarian cancer earlier

Ovarian cancer is usually diagnosed late, when survival is poor, and the main blood test in use, CA-125, misses many early cancers. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) released by tumour cells carry proteins, lipids and RNA that reflect the tissue they came from, which makes them a promising source of earlier and more specific markers.

This program profiles plasma EVs from patients and matched controls to find and verify those markers:

  • Proteomics in pre-diagnostic samples. Using immunoaffinity-enriched EV proteomics, we have examined high-grade serous ovarian cancer in a nested case-control analysis of the UK Ovarian Cancer Population Study (Salomon et al., 2026).
  • Lipidomics. Small EV and total lipid profiles outperformed CA-125 across ovarian cancer subtypes (Rani et al., 2026), and EV lipidomics reveals metabolic reprogramming in both the tumour and the host (Rani et al., 2026).
  • Rapid detection platforms. With materials science collaborators, we have developed mesoporous gold SERS biosensors that detect ovarian cancer-derived EVs directly (Bashir et al., 2025; Hasan et al., 2026).
  • Treatment response. EV cargo also tracks chemoresistance and recurrence (Alharbi et al., 2020; Alharbi† et al., 2021).

A key outcome has been contributing to OCRF-7, an early-detection blood test for ovarian cancer that is now in clinical validation.

References

2026

  1. Gynecol Oncol
    salomon2026ukops.jpg
    Immunoaffinity-enriched extracellular vesicle proteomics for high-grade serous ovarian cancer: A UKOPS nested case-control analysis
    Carlos Salomon, Andrew Lai, Dominic Guanzon, Katherin Scholz-Romero, and 6 more authors
    Gynecologic Oncology, Oct 2026
    DOI HTML
  2. J Extracell Vesicles
    rani2026sevlipid.jpg
    Small Extracellular Vesicle and Total Lipid Profiles Provide a Diagnostic Advantage Over CA-125 Across Ovarian Cancer Subtypes
    Shikha Rani, Dominic Guanzon, Andrew Lai, Katherin Scholz-Romero, and 9 more authors
    Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, Sep 2026
    DOI HTML
  3. Mol Oncol
    rani2026lipidomics.jpg
    Extracellular vesicle lipidomics liquid biopsy reveals systemic and tumor microenvironment metabolic reprogramming in ovarian cancer
    Shikha Rani, Dominic Guanzon, Andrew Lai, Katherin Scholz-Romero, and 6 more authors
    Molecular Oncology, Oct 2026
    DOI HTML
  4. Sens Diagn
    hasan2026mesoporous.jpg
    Mesoporous gold SERS platform for extracellular vesicle-based detection of ovarian cancer
    Mahedi Hasan, Emtiaz Ahmed, Aditya Ashok, Andrew Lai, and 8 more authors
    Sensors & Diagnostics, Oct 2026
    Advance article
    DOI HTML

2025

  1. Small
    RN76.jpg
    Plasmonic Mesoporous Gold‐Based SERS Biosensor for Ovarian Cancer‐Derived Extracellular Vesicles
    Javeria Bashir, Mostafa Kamal Masud, Asep Sugih Nugraha, Chia-Hung Liu, and 13 more authors
    Small, Oct 2025
    DOI HTML

2021

  1. Cancers
    RN53.jpg
    Extracellular vesicle transmission of chemoresistance to ovarian cancer cells is associated with hypoxia-induced expression of glycolytic pathway proteins, and prediction of epithelial ovarian cancer disease recurrence
    Mona Alharbi†, Andrew Lai†, Shayna Sharma, Priyakshi Kalita-de Croft, and 6 more authors
    Cancers, Oct 2021
    † Joint first authors.
    DOI HTML

2020

  1. Nanomedicine
    RN45.jpg
    miRNa signature in small extracellular vesicles and their association with platinum resistance and cancer recurrence in ovarian cancer
    Mona Alharbi, Shayna Sharma, Dominic Guanzon, Andrew Lai, and 6 more authors
    Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine, Oct 2020
    DOI HTML