Washington, Nov16: A recent study has found that Kisspeptin and its G-protein group receptor GPR54 are capable of predicting a favourable outcome in woman with ovarian carcinoma.

Kisspeptins, a family of peptide hormones, and the receptor GPR54 were previously associated with anti-metastatic activity in certain human tumours.

The study, at the BC Cancer Agency and Vancouver General Hospital involving 518 cases of early-stage ovarian carcinoma, determined that Kisspeptin and its receptor GPR54 were specific for all cell carcinoma subtype.

In this study, researchers identified that kisspeptin and GPR54 were independent prognostic biomarkers specific for ovarian clear cell carcinoma - the first such markers to be identified.

The study revealed that the patients who were positive for both kisspeptin and GPR54 had a favourable prognosis as compared to those patients who were negative or both kisspeptin and GPR54 cases - both in terms of disease-specific survival and overall survival.

They also found that these molecular markers were significantly associated with the clear cell ovarian carcinomas subtype.

The study proposed that in the future, serum kisspeptin levels could act as a means to monitor disease activity, and could even be used as therapeutic agents in women with ovarian clear cell carcinoma.

"We anticipate that the strong association of GPR54 and kisspeptin expression with outcome and clear cell type in ovarian carcinoma will stimulate fresh approaches to what is still a lethally intractable disease, " said the researchers.

The research was conducted by creating a tissue microarray, paraffin blocks which allowed numerous tissue samples to be analysed simultaneously.

The authors analysed the samples using antibodies against kisspeptin and its receptor GPR54. The analysis showed that strong staining for either kisspeptinor GPR54 were scored as positive while the rest marked negative.

The study appeared in the online open access journal, BMC Medicine. (ANI)