Multi-omic blood test achieves 90.2% early-stage sensitivity in ovarian cancer versus 54.1% for CA125, and detected all early-stage high-grade serous cancers, the subtype behind most ovarian cancer deaths
DENVER, CO, October 23, 2026: AOA Dx, a biotechnology company developing a multi-omics liquid biopsy platform for earlier cancer detection, presented new data at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2026 showing that its lead ovarian cancer blood test, OMIRA™ OC, detected 9 in 10 early-stage ovarian cancers in women with symptoms.
In an independent holdout set, OMIRA™ OC achieved 90.2% sensitivity for early-stage ovarian cancer and 92.9% sensitivity across all stages, at 87.7% specificity. In a head-to-head comparison with CA125, OMIRA OC detected 55 of 61 early-stage cancers whereas CA125 detected only 33. That is 66% more cancers identified at the stage when ovarian cancer is most treatable, with no statistically significant difference in specificity.
Ovarian cancer is not silent. About 85% of women with the disease have symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain and urinary and bowel changes. Those symptoms are routinely mistaken for less serious conditions, and the average delay before diagnosis is ~8 months or more. Ovarian cancer is often found at stage III or IV, when 5-year survival falls near 31%.
Caught at stage I, survival exceeds 90%. In this study, CA125, the most widely used blood test that is standard of care, missed nearly half of early-stage cancers. This is consistent with what has been reported across many studies. CA125’s limited sensitivity in early-stage disease is well documented.
“Women with ovarian cancer notice their symptoms. They go to their doctors. For decades, the tools have failed them,” said Oriana Papin-Zoghbi, CEO and Co-Founder of AOA Dx. “These results change what is possible. OMIRA OC found 9 in 10 early-stage cancers, including all 13 early-stage high-grade serous cancers, the deadliest form of this disease. This is the test women have been waiting for, and we are building it to reach them soon.”
Key Findings from the ESMO Presentation
The study, “An Integrated Multi-Omic Assay Combining Lipids, Metabolites, and Proteins: OMIRA™ OC Enables Accurate Detection of Early-Stage Ovarian Cancer in Symptomatic Women,” reported:
- 90.2% sensitivity for early-stage ovarian cancer (AUC 0.95).
- 92.9% sensitivity across all stages (AUC 0.97).
- 87.7% specificity in symptomatic women without ovarian cancer.
- 100% sensitivity in a subgroup of 13 patients with early-stage high-grade serous ovarian cancer.
- Statistically significant higher sensitivity than CA125 for early-stage and all-stage disease, with no statistically significant difference in specificity.
Unlike traditional tests that rely on a single biomarker, OMIRA™ OC combines lipids, metabolites, and proteins to read the metabolic reprogramming that tumors undergo in the earliest stages of development. AOA Dx has translated its broad multi-omics discovery approach, first published in Diagnostics (Culp-Hill et al., 2026) into a targeted panel with a machine learning based model, and built for routine clinical use at scale.
“For decades, researchers have found promising lipid and metabolite signals in cancer discovery studies, but none have made it into a clinical lipidomics test for oncology,” said Abigail McElhinny, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of AOA Dx. “Translation demands deep expertise in mass spectrometry, lipidomics, metabolomics, early detection, liquid biopsy and computational biology. We brought those disciplines together, developed novel methods, narrowed thousands of discovery features to a panel of fewer than 10 molecules with a simple machine learning based model. Then we challenged the model in an independent testing set and found that it is reproducible, even in the earliest stages, where detection matters most. This opens a new era for liquid biopsy.”
AOA Dx is already expanding its multi-omics platform, with additional data identifying cancer-associated signals in endometrial and cervical cancers. Together, these advances support the company’s vision of building scalable blood tests that can help detect multiple cancers earlier.
About AOA Dx
AOA Dx is a biotechnology company developing a multi-omics liquid biopsy platform for earlier cancer detection. Its lead test, OMIRA™ OC, is being developed to improve ovarian cancer diagnosis in women experiencing symptoms. The company’s broader platform combines lipid, metabolite, and protein biomarkers to identify cancer-associated biological signals and translate them into scalable diagnostic tests.
Learn more at www.aoadx.com.
Media Contact:
Ariel Kramer