One of the hoped for new tools in the management and diagnosis of ovarian cancer is the availability of a liquid biopsy. By this is meant a test which uses bodily fluid, usually blood, to determine the presence of ovarian cancer together with the type.
Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) may well provide this tool, this is a fragment of cancer DNA which is released by cancer cells when they die and are destroyed.
The presence of ctDNA may be shown with genotyping either of the known gene (exon) or the whole genome. This new gene information is much more readily available as PCR testing which became commonplace during the recent pandemic. Early diagnosis and rapid detection of recurrence may be possible if ctDNA testing becomes widespread.
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