Most scientific efforts towards early detection of ovarian cancer are commonly focused on the discovery of tumour-associated antigens (TAA). Autologous antibodies against TAA, however, may serve as more sensitive diagnostic markers. They circulate in the blood before TAA and are usually more abundant than the TAAs themselves as a result of amplification through the humoral immune response. Accumulating evidence also suggests that a humoral response already exists during malignant transformation when aberrant gene expression is translated into premalignant cellular changes. This article reviews the current knowledge about autoantibodies against TAA in ovarian cancer and presents current immunoproteomic approaches for their detection.
Keywords: autoantibodies; immunoproteomics; ovarian cancer.