Background: Patients with recurrent ovarian cancer often achieve partial response following chemotherapy, resulting in persistent small volume disease. After completion of treatment, the dilemma of when to initiate subsequent chemotherapy arises. Identification of biomarkers that could be used to predict when subsequent treatment is needed would be of significant benefit.
Design: Twenty-three patients with advanced ovarian cancer and residual asymptomatic disease following chemotherapy underwent dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) at study entry, 4, 8, 12, 18 and 26 weeks or disease progression. A subgroup of patients provided plasma samples within which a panel of angiogenic biomarkers was quantified.
Results: By 4 weeks, significant differences in whole tumour volume, enhancing fraction and Ca125 were observed between patients whose disease progressed by 26 weeks and those who remained stable. Significant correlations between plasma soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (sVEGFR-1) and sVEGFR-2 concentrations, and blood volume and tumour endothelial permeability surface area product measured by DCE-MRI were observed.
Conclusions: Imaging markers have a potential role in early prediction of disease progression in patients with residual ovarian cancer and may supplement current measures of progression. The correlation of DCE-MRI and serological biomarkers suggests that tumour angiogenesis affects these markers through common biological means and warrants further investigation.