Most patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) are diagnosed with advanced disease thus accounting for the low 5-year survival rates. Women with EOC generally do not experience symptoms until late-stage disease. There are no current methods to screen for early disease and new approaches are necessary that can help scientists to develop clinical screening tests used in general practice settings. To identify detectable indicators of early disease using a liquid biopsy approach, this study aims to characterize human microbiota (non-infectious bacteria) circulating in the blood plasma that are exclusive to the bacteria present in EOC tumors.

To accomplish the study aims, the researchers will isolate nucleic acids from biobanked plasma samples of women with EOC, non-EOC solid tumors, benign gynecologic conditions, and healthy controls and apply microbial gene sequencing and bioinformatics to classify and quantify bacterial differences between the study groups. The researchers will also evaluate plasma bacterial extracellular vesicles and bacteria within the EOC tumors that correlate with tumor stage and histology. The primary goal of this research is to detect  EOC-associated plasma bacteria that would be highly favorable for screening particularly in the deadliest EOC histologic subtype, high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma, among women who are at highest disease risk.

Diane E. Mahoney, Ph.D., DNP, FNP-BC, WHNP-BC, APRN
Assistant Professor, School Of Nursing
Junior Faculty, Kansas Institute for Precision Medicine COBRE
Email: dmahoney@kumc.edu