Looking for an effective and non-invasive diagnostic test for endometriosis: where are we?

Pietro G. Signorile, Signorile PG, Alfonso Baldi
Annals of translational medicine · 2018 · vol. 6(S2) , pp. S106 · doi:10.21037/atm.2018.11.46 · PMID:30740427 · PMC6330624 · W2902281977
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⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-12 ⓘ

This review discusses the current status of diagnostic tests for endometriosis, a common gynecological disease affecting up to 10% of reproductive-aged women and characterized by ectopic endometrial tissue growth.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-12 · read from full text ⓘ

This paper reviews the need for an effective, non-invasive diagnostic test for endometriosis and reports the authors’ proteomic work to identify circulating biomarkers of disease. Using a proteomic 2D-gel analysis, the study compared proteins differentially expressed between women with endometriosis and healthy controls, proposing three candidate diagnostic markers (zinc-alpha-2-glycoprotein, albumin, and complement C3), whose differential expression was reported as independent of menstrual cycle phase and endometriosis stage, and where ROC analyses supported diagnostic potential with potential benefit from combined use. The authors further discuss a related study by Bockaj et al. identifying brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and an electrochemical, finger-prick–compatible detection chip, while explicitly noting that the BDNF approach is limited by small sample size and possible low specificity because BDNF varies in unrelated diseases. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — specifically, it focuses on progress toward non-invasive blood-based diagnostic biomarkers for endometriosis and related detection methods.

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Abstract

Endometriosis is a very frequent estrogen-dependent gynecological disease, that affects up to 10% of all reproductive-aged women. The hallmark of endometriosis is the pathological growth of ectopic endometrial-like tissue outside of the uterine cavity (1). The prevalence, dramatically rises to 30–50% in women with chronic pelvic pain and infertility (2).
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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Fondazione Italiana Endometriosi. Footnote Conflicts of Interest: PG Signorile and A Baldi are authors of a patent application (WO 2013/171655) related to the themes of the article.

References

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