Early detection is one of the biggest community priorities for ovarian cancer research.
We sat down with Dr. Christopher Mueller, a scientist at Queen’s University, and Sydney Shepherd, a PhD student working in his lab. Together, they’re studying mDETECT, a simple blood test that looks for DNA changes to help find and track ovarian cancer.
In this Q&A, they explain their work on a blood test to diagnose ovarian cancer, how the test works, who it could help, what makes it different from other tests, and share information on ovarian cancer early detection.
Behind the Microscope: Exploring early detection research
Watch Dr. Mueller and Sydney answer questions from the community at our 2025 National Symposium
Can mDETECT be used to identify early recurrence or monitor patients after treatment?
Dr. Mueller: “Absolutely. I can say from our lung cancer tests that we can see things six months or more in advance of CT scans. It’s the same technology that we apply to early detection for other cancers, with the caveat that we’re still probably a couple of years away from offering it to the public.”
Even though it is still being tested, the technology could help find cancer coming back early, like it currently does in lung and breast cancer.
What defines success for your study, both in the lab and in clinical trials?
Dr. Mueller: “Success for this project means validating our tests in our real-world population…In this case, it’s all about identifying whether the patients that we’re looking at really do have ovarian cancer or not and can we differentiate them from patients who have other symptoms.”
This focus on testing the tool in real life is important for it to be used in the future. The better the test can tell the difference between ovarian cancer and other conditions, the closer it gets to being used more widely.
What does mDETECT measure, and how does it differ from CA-125?
Sydney Shepherd: “Our test specifically is looking at looking for almost these little flags on the DNA that are telling us that there’s a cancer signal or not. What we’ve seen is that our test is a lot more accurate than CA-125.”
CA-125 can be high for many reasons that are not cancer and some ovarian cancer patients don’t have high CA-125 levels at all. DNA methylation patterns give a clearer and more reliable sign of cancer.
Could mDETECT be used for ovarian cancer screening in people without symptoms, including BRCA1 carriers?
Dr. Mueller: “When we designed it, we really had that [BRCA1] population in mind, as Sydney can attest. She did a lot of work ensuring that BRCA1 patients were sensitively detected in this test and then could benefit from it. When it comes down to diagnostics versus screening, we’re operating in an area where diagnostics is easier to do…We really foresee the ability to use our test for women who are coming in for investigations of some sort…It’s going to be a long time before we do this as a general screening tool, but I think it would be something that could be done in that context…”
The test was made for people who have a higher risk of ovarian cancer in their family. One day, it might help doctors test these high-risk people earlier, but more evidence is needed first.
How much will the mDETECT test cost once available?
Dr. Mueller: “We expect it to be in the several hundred-dollar range for a test like this. Something that would not be a burden to the healthcare system. A lot of the tests like this being run in the United States are several thousand dollars.”
Affordability is a core goal, supporting potential future integration into Canada’s healthcare system.
How are patient partners involved in shaping this research?
How are patient partners involved in shaping this research?
Sydney Shepherd: “We’ve been fortunate enough to work with several patient partners, specifically a support group in Kingston called the Ovation Circle. I’ve had the chance to speak to a lot of the women from this group to hear about their lived experience with ovarian cancer. And it’s been instrumental to what we’ve been doing because they’ve given us their lived experience and their priorities, and it has helped to shape the research we’ve been doing. One of the big things we heard was that they had symptoms up to a year before their actual diagnosis that ended up being dismissed and not diagnosed until much later, which has really helped us shape this study and our future studies to use this test at the onset of those first symptoms.”
This patient-centred collaboration ensures the test addresses real needs, particularly the need for finding symptoms earlier.
Dr. Mueller: “We’re very sensitive to how do we build our studies so that women are willing to do this.”
MEET LIANE
Liane is a patient partner in Kingston, working with Sydney and Dr. Mueller to help inform this research through her perspective as someone living with ovarian cancer.
As a trainee, what inspired Sydney to pursue ovarian cancer research?
Sydney Shepherd: “I’ve always been interested in working in the cancer research field. I feel very fortunate to be working on this project because it is a woman’s disease and it has been underfunded and under researched. We haven’t seen much improvement in survival in the past 60 years, so, to be able to even contribute in a small way to this is something that I feel very fortunate to do. Specifically with this project going from the lab to the clinic and getting this test out to real women is something I’m very excited to be working on.”
How is mDETECT different from other liquid biopsy tests?
Dr. Mueller: “Most of them are based on mutations. When a cancer forms there are specific changes to the DNA that occur, and in many cases, those mutations are what drives that cancer… There are also other changes that happen that don’t change the actual sequence of the DNA. The real advantage of what we’re doing with epigenetics and DNA methylation is that it’s much more frequent. So, we can build a test that is actually 10 times more sensitive. Mutation-based assays, in some cases, need a sample of a tumour before they can begin building a specific test for that cancer…The way our test works is looking at a large number of these changes across a cell’s DNA, and so it results in something that is very sensitive and specific. One of the advantages of a test like ours, and even as a screening tool, is that people that do not have cancer have very little signal from our test, and that places us in a position of being able to do our test with confidence.”
mDETECT looks at tiny changes in DNA instead of mutations, so it can find signs of cancer earlier and more accurately.
Will mDETECT work across all types of ovarian cancer?
Sydney Shepherd: “Originally, we did focus on high grade serous ovarian cancer. But we have looked and we’ve seen very, very promising results, showing that not only could our test detect high grade serous ovarian cancer, but it could also detect those rare subtypes.”
Future testing will confirm if mDETECT can be used across rare ovarian cancer subtypes.
Can the test detect ovarian cancer at early stages (Stage I–II)?
Sydney Shepherd: “We have been able to test on some samples from earlier stages and have shown good results. We’re hoping with the study to get some of those earlier stages.”
Finding ovarian cancer early is very important, and their team needs more early samples to keep studying the blood test.
How are patients identified for participation in this clinical study?
Dr. Mueller: “The idea is to identify them as they’re coming in for a workup seeing a gynecological oncologist for suspicious findings. The next step is studying women earlier in the process, but that requires thousands of patients.”
The current trial focuses on individuals with symptoms suspicious for ovarian cancer. Broader screening studies are a future goal.
What needs to happen before mDETECT becomes clinically available?
Dr. Mueller: “Really the next step is more patients. Ideally, we’d like several hundred more to go to Health Canada to start the approval process.”
Larger studies across multiple centres will support regulatory approval and future clinical adoption.
Final thoughts from the researchers
Dr. Mueller:
“It can be frustrating when research doesn’t go fast… but now that we’ve gotten to this stage, I think there’s hope. We’re really committed to this and seeing it come to market.”
Sydney Shepherd:
“What we’ve seen so far is very promising. We’re very excited to see the results of this clinical study.”
Dr. Chris Mueller
Dr. Chris Mueller is a senior scientist and professor at the Sinclair Cancer Research Institute at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. His research has involved studying epigenetics in different cancers, the relationship between stress and BRCA1, and developing methylation-based liquid biopsies. Chris earned his Ph.D (Microbiology and Immunology) from McGill University. He did 2 sabbaticals at the Curie Institute in Paris where he started his work on developing liquid biopsies. He has received a variety of grants for advancing mDETECT assays to clinical validation including for lung, breast, prostate and ovarian cancers. He cofounded mDETECT in 2022 and is involved in all aspects of company growth.
Sydney Shepherd
Sydney Shepherd is a PhD student in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at Queen’s University. She completed her undergraduate degree in Life Sciences at Queen’s, where she specialized in cancer research. Her current research in the Mueller Lab focuses on optimizing and validating a blood test for the improved detection and monitoring of ovarian cancer.