Preclinical detection of lysophosphatidic acid: A new window for ovarian cancer diagnostics.

Ovarian cancer, a highly metastatic disease characterized by widespread peritoneal and ascites dissemination, is the leading cause of death from gynecological malignancies and poses a serious threat to women's lives. Biomarkers detection for the early diagnosis is crucial to ameliorate the dismal survival rate. Currently, there is much interest in lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), with evidences shown that the elevated LPA level in plasma could serve as an effective biomarker for ovarian cancer. Thus the mastery of LPA measurement techniques is conducive to providing a new diagnostic or prognostic platform for ovarian cancer. In this tutorial review, with a brief discussion on the sample pre-treatment protocols, we summarize various methods for LPA detection with emphasis on the advances in universal mass spectrometry-based technologies and emerging optical sensor strategies. Meanwhile, other methods such as enzymatic method, capillary electrophoresis, dot immunogold filtration assay and bioassay are also included. Eventually, we outlook the potential clinical value of LPA detection, and anticipate the future improvements of these methodologies to make them truly useful for ovarian cancer diagnosis.