Personalized Treatment in Ovarian Cancer: A Review of Disease Monitoring, Biomarker Expression, and Targeted...

Background/Objectives: Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy due to its late diagnosis, aggressive disease course, and high likelihood of recurrence. In the last few years, with the advent of high-throughput genomic methodologies, our understanding of ovarian cancer genetics and biology has grown. In this review, we discuss current monitoring techniques, as well as biomarker-directed therapies, recently developed for ovarian cancer treatment. Methods: The primary literature and review articles were obtained through PUBMED searches of "ovarian cancer", "biomarkers", "CA125", "circulating tumor DNA", "BRCA", "HER2", "TROP2", and "FOLR1." Results and Conclusions: The detection and quantification of CA125, a protein biomarker, remains the primary test used in the clinic for ovarian cancer diagnosis and monitoring. However, liquid biopsy techniques involving circulating tumor DNA, used alone or in combination with CA125, are increasingly used to enhance diagnostic accuracy and provide a more comprehensive picture of tumor genomic changes, including single-nucleotide variants, copy number variations, and epigenetic alterations. In the last few years, the use of BRCA, HER2, TROP2, and FOLR1 as biomarkers for targeted treatment has demonstrated promising results, both preclinically and clinically. The detection of BRCA1/2 mutations is routinely used as a strong predictor of response to PARP inhibitors, while HER2, TROP2, and FOLR1 expressions have emerged as primary targets for the treatment of recurrent ovarian cancer patients using novel antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).