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Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal gynaecological malignancy in the western world. The majority of women presenting with the disease are asymptomatic and it has been dubbed the "silent killer". To date there is no effective minimally invasive method of stratifying those with the disease or screening for the disease in the general population. Recent molecular and pathological discoveries, along with the advancement of scientific technology, means there is a real possibility of having disease-specific liquid biopsies available within the clinical environment in the near future. In this review we discuss these discoveries, particularly in relation to the most common and aggressive form of EOC, and their role in making this possibility a reality., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts to report., (©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between BRCA1 protein expression, as determined by immunohistochemistry, and clinical outcome in uterine serous carcinoma (USC)., Methods: A tissue microarray containing duplicate cores of 73 cases of USC was immunohistochemically stained with mouse anti-BRCA1 (Ab-1) mouse monoclonal (MS110) antibody. The cores were scored in a semiquantitative manner evaluating both the distribution and intensity of nuclear staining. BRCA1 protein expression was correlated with progression-free survival., Results: Seventy-two of 73 cases were assessable, and there was a statistically significant decreased progression-free survival for those cases exhibiting tumor cell nuclei staining of 76% or greater (P = 0.0023)., Conclusions: Our study illustrates that a low level of BRCA1 protein expression is a favorable prognostic indicator in USC, similar to what is observed in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma. Further studies should focus on the BRCA1 status of USCs at a molecular level and also investigate whether BRCA1 protein expression is associated with response to chemotherapy in USC.