# High-Mannose N‑Glycans To Monitor Early Response to Chemotherapy in African Epithelial Ovarian Cancer PatientsA Pilot Study

## TL;DR

This study explores N-glycans as potential biomarkers for early detection and monitoring of ovarian cancer treatment in African patients.

## Contribution

The study is the first to investigate aberrant N-glycosylation in an African epithelial ovarian cancer cohort and identifies glycan changes during chemotherapy.

## Key findings

- High-mannose N-glycans increased with treatment response in early chemotherapy cycles.
- Complex-type sialylated fucosylated N-glycans decreased, especially in late chemotherapy cycles.
- A glycan-based index outperformed routine biomarkers in detecting primary EOC and monitoring treatment.

## Abstract

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains the most lethal
form of
cancer despite improvements in surgical techniques and therapeutic
interventions over recent decades. The high mortality rate is largely
associated with a lack of sensitive and specific early diagnostic
biomarkers to allow timely intervention. Hence, the identification
and validation of novel noninvasive biomarkers for primary diagnosis
and for disease monitoring is of high importance. Malignant transformations
of N-glycosylation have been reported across various
cancer types including EOC, but little is known about the N-glycome of African populations. In this work, we investigated
aberrant N-glycosylation for the first time in an
African EOC cohort comprising primary patients and those undergoing
chemotherapy. In this pilot study, the N-glycome
of African EOC and controls was comparable to those previously found
in European cohorts. Of importance, high-mannose N-glycans increased with response to treatment in early chemotherapy
cycles, and complex-type sialylated fucosylated N-glycans decreased, especially in the late chemotherapy cycles. Interestingly,
the glycan-based index that we previously developed to detect primary
EOC was more sensitive and specific than the routine diagnostic biomarker
to identify primary EOC and to monitor chemoresponse in the early
phase of the treatment.