Protocol for identifying metabolite biomarkers in patient uterine fluid for early ovarian cancer detection

STAR Protoc. 2024 Mar 13;5(2):102953. doi: 10.1016/j.xpro.2024.102953. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

High mortality of ovarian cancer (OC) is primarily attributed to the lack of effective early detection methods. Uterine fluid, pooling molecules from neighboring ovaries, presents an organ-specific advantage over conventional blood samples. Here, we present a protocol for identifying metabolite biomarkers in uterine fluid for early OC detection. We describe steps for uterine fluid collection from patients, metabolite extraction, metabolomics experiments, and candidate metabolite biomarker screening. This standardized workflow holds the potential to achieve early OC diagnosis in clinical practice. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Wang et al.1.

Keywords: Cancer; Clinical Protocol; Health Sciences; Mass Spectrometry; Metabolomics.