Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42680694›Full record

ArticleJournal of extracellular vesicles2026

Small Extracellular Vesicle and Total Lipid Profiles Provide a Diagnostic Advantage Over CA-125 Across Ovarian Cancer Subtypes.

Shikha Rani, Dominic Guanzon, Andrew Lai, Katherin Scholz-Romero, Lewis Perrin, Rohan Lourie, Vaibhavi Joshi, Amy E McCart Reed, Kaltin Ferguson, Aase Handberg and 2 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of extracellular vesicles, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors.

Shikha RaniTranslational Extracellular Vesicles in Obstetrics and Gynae-Oncology Group, Frazer Institute, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia.
Dominic GuanzonTranslational Extracellular Vesicles in Obstetrics and Gynae-Oncology Group, Frazer Institute, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-7913-5749
Andrew LaiTranslational Extracellular Vesicles in Obstetrics and Gynae-Oncology Group, Frazer Institute, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia.
Katherin Scholz-RomeroTranslational Extracellular Vesicles in Obstetrics and Gynae-Oncology Group, Frazer Institute, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia.
Lewis PerrinMater Research Institute, Translational Research Institute, The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia.
Rohan LourieMater Research Institute, Translational Research Institute, The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia.
Vaibhavi JoshiFrazer institute, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia.
Amy E McCart ReedFrazer institute, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia.
Kaltin FergusonMater Research Institute, Translational Research Institute, The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia.
Aase HandbergDepartment of Clinical Biochemistry, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark.
Andreas MöllerDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Carlos SalomonTranslational Extracellular Vesicles in Obstetrics and Gynae-Oncology Group, Frazer Institute, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-4474-0046

Funding

Chinese University of Hong Kong IDBF23MED14Medical Research Future Fund MRF1199984National Health and Medical Research Council 1195451Ovarian Cancer Research FoundationThe Donald & Joan Wilson Foundation Ltdthe Innovation and Technology Commission, Hong Kong SAR
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Ovarian cancer remains the most lethal gynaecological malignancy, largely due to late-stage diagnosis and the limited sensitivity of CA-125 for borderline and low-grade tumours. Dysregulated lipid metabolism may provide complementary diagnostic information. This study aimed to develop lipid-based biomarkers to improve the differential diagnosis of adnexal masses. We profiled total plasma and small extracellular vesicle (sEV) lipids in women with benign, borderline and malignant ovarian tumours, using healthy women as controls. Solid-phase extraction demonstrated superior reproducibility, lipid-class specificity and sEV lipid enrichment compared with liquid-liquid extraction. Combined with CA-125, both plasma and sEV lipid biomarkers outperformed CA-125 alone for distinguishing borderline and low-grade serous ovarian cancer from benign tumours (accuracy up to 0.89 vs. 0.67). In patients with normal CA-125 levels, sEV lipids provided the greatest diagnostic advantage, distinguishing invasive and borderline tumours from benign adnexal masses (AUROC up to 0.82). Generative artificial intelligence was used to simulate biomarker performance in synthetic cohorts for differential diagnosis (n = 10,000) and screening (n = 100,000). For differential diagnosis, sEV lipids combined with CA-125 outperformed plasma lipids for identifying endometrioid and mucinous ovarian cancer from benign adnexal masses. For screening, sEV lipids alone achieved accuracies of 0.91 and 0.94 for benign conditions and high-grade serous ovarian cancer, respectively. Simulations restricted to patients with normal CA-125 levels confirmed that sEV lipids provided the highest discriminative performance for low-grade serous ovarian cancer (AUROC up to 0.74), demonstrating their potential where CA-125 alone fails. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to directly compare matched plasma and sEV lipid profiles across ovarian cancer histotypes, demonstrating a diagnostic advantage for sEV lipids-particularly for borderline, low-grade serous and mucinous tumours, supporting their integration alongside CA-125 in future differential diagnosis and screening strategies.

Indexed as

CA-125 AntigenExtracellular VesiclesLipidsOvarian NeoplasmsAdultBiomarkers, TumorDiagnosis, DifferentialFemaleHumansLipid MetabolismMiddle AgedBiomarkers, TumorCA-125 AntigenLipidsbiomarkerslipidomicslipidsovarian cancersmall extracellular vesicles

Identifiers

PMID42680694
PMCPMC13533800

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.