Identification of serum biomarkers for ovarian cancer using MALDI–TOF-MS combined with magnetic beads

Background The objective of this study was to search for potential protein biomarkers in serum for diagnosis of ovarian cancer, by use of proteomic fingerprint techniques. Method MALDI–TOF-MS was combined with magnetic beads to profile and compare serum protein spectra from 40 ovarian cancer patients and from 60 healthy controls. Results The tree analysis model of potential cancer biomarkers was constructed with Biomarker Patterns software on the basis of three identified biomarkers (5486, 6440, and 13720 Da), resulting in excellent discrimination between the ovarian cancer and non-cancer in our tests. The sensitivity was 90% and the specificity was 86.7%. In a blind test the sensitivity was 88% and the specificity was 83.3%. Conclusion The results suggested that biomarkers for ovarian cancer diagnosis in serum could be identified by MALDI–TOF-MS combined with the use of magnetic beads. The use of combined biomarkers would further enable powerful and reliable diagnosis of ovarian cancer with high sensitivity and specificity.