Osteopontin as a Potential Diagnostic Biomarker for Ovarian Cancer

Abstract

Ovarian cancer ranks as the fifth leading cause of death from cancer and has the highest mortality rate among the gynecologic malignancies in the United States.¹ Every year approximately 25 000 ovarian cancer cases are newly diagnosed and approximately 15 000 deaths occur secondary to the malignancy.² This high case-fatality ratio reflects the fact that most ovarian cancer cases are detected at stage III or IV, at which the 5-year survival rate is below 30% compared with 95% with stage I.³ To improve survival, it would be desirable to develop tumor markers that could be used to detect the early stages of the disease.