Ultrasound imaging of ovarian tumor associated neo-angiogenesis as an early detection tool for ovarian cancer

A8 Background: Ovarian cancer (OVCA) represents the fetal gynecological malignancy of women and the lack of an early detection method is one of the reasons of high mortality rate due to OVCA. Ovarian tumor associated neo-angiogenesis (TAN) is an earlier event leading to OVCA and can be an effective target for early detection. Because the symptoms of OVCA are non-specific during early stage, it is difficult to identify and study patients at early stage of OVCA to develop an early detection method. Laying hen is the only widely available animal that develops OVCA spontaneously like humans. Recently, we have established, for the first time, in vivo visualizationand monitoring of ovarian tumors in hens using ultrasound imagingwith similar probe as in human (http://www.jultrasoundmed.org/cgi/reprint/26/7/909). In our method, a hen can bescreened repeatedly without affecting its physiology. The goal of this study was to detect ovarian TAN by Doppler ultrasound (DUS) in association with angiogenic markers including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and αvβ3-integrins in laying hens.
 Methods: White Leghorn hens of 3 years old (n = 30) with low egg laying rates (