Abstract 3390: Preliminary results for a novel single extracellular vesicle assay for early stage ovarian cancer: The power of co-localized detection of surface biomarkers
Authors: Bortolin Laura T. , Salem Daniel P. , Banerjee Sanchari , Biette Kelly M. , Byrne Delaney M. , Couvillon Anthony D. , Duff Peter A. , Grosha Jonian , King MacKenzie Sadie , Sedlak Christopher R. , Zabroski Ibukunoluwapo O. , Alexander Claire , Copeland Karen , Gusenleitner Daniel , Winn-Deen Emily S. , Huang Eric K. , Rueda Bo R. , Sedlak Joseph Charles 
Published: June 2022

Introduction: Ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the deadliest cancers, with 314,000 new cases and 207,000 deaths globally in 2020. Serum CA125 has been explored as an OC biomarker for the past 40 years, but lacks sensitivity for early stage OC and is not recommended for screening average-risk, asymptomatic women. We hypothesize that co-localization of biomarkers on the surface of individual extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are shed into the circulation by cancer cells, may lead to development of a blood test for early stage OC. We evaluated the potential of our approach in detecting early stage OC in clinical samples.

Methods: We isolated EVs using size-exclusion chromatography and immunoaffinity capture, and detected biomarkers co-localized on the surface of individual EVs with proximity ligation qPCR. Using this approach, we evaluated 49 antibody combinations recognizing 2 or more biomarkers. Each combination consisted of 1 capture antibody and 2 oligonucleotide-tagged detection antibodies. We tested plasma samples from women with early stage I/II high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC)(n=18; 48-80 yr, med 57) and late stage HGSOC (n=24; 37-80 yr, med 54). HGSOC samples were sourced from 2 commercial vendors. Controls comprised samples from women with benign ovarian masses (n=26; 23-76 yr, med 39.5) sourced from a single vendor, and samples prospectively collected by Mercy from healthy women with no cancer history (n=24; 22-72 yr, med 52.5). PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values were measured for each of 49 combinations and data was evaluated using univariate analysis. Performance was compared to plasma CA125 measured at Mercy by commercial ELISA.

Results: 8 of 49 combinations distinguished all stages of HGSOC relative to benign and healthy controls with AUCs ranging from 0.86 (95% CI 0.78-0.94) to 0.95 (95% CI 0.90-1.00), comparable to CA125 with an AUC of 0.87 (95% CI 0.79-0.95). One of the most effective combinations (STn, BST2, MUC1) had a sensitivity of 0.78 (95% CI 0.52-0.94) at a specificity of 0.96 (95% CI 0.87-0.99) in detecting early stage HGSOC. This combination also detected HGSOC in 6 of 11 women (3 early stage, 3 late stage) with normal CA125 (&lt; 25 U/mL) and correctly classified 7 of 8 women with benign masses and high CA125 (&gt; 25 U/mL).

Conclusions: These preliminary data suggest that co-localization of surface biomarkers in single EVs may provide an effective means to identify women with early stage HGSOC, including those with normal CA125, while avoiding false positives in women with benign masses and high CA125. Despite the inherent challenges associated with commercial samples, our finding that several combinations detected early stage HGSOC is promising. Statistically powered studies with curated repository specimens are underway to refine combinations and independently validate our assay for early stage OC detection.

Citation Format: Laura T. Bortolin, Daniel P. Salem, Sanchari Banerjee, Kelly M. Biette, Delaney M. Byrne, Anthony D. Couvillon, Peter A. Duff, Jonian Grosha, MacKenzie Sadie King, Christopher R. Sedlak, Ibukunoluwapo O. Zabroski, Claire Alexander, Karen Copeland, Daniel Gusenleitner, Emily S. Winn-Deen, Eric K. Huang, Bo R. Rueda, Joseph Charles Sedlak. Preliminary results for a novel single extracellular vesicle assay for early stage ovarian cancer: The power of co-localized detection of surface biomarkers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 3390.