Please click to read the original text: Blood Test Shows Promise in Endometriosis
A blood test for endometriosis showed clinical promise after detecting cases missed by standard imaging, according to a clinical validation study.
HerAnova Lifesciences has published a peer-reviewed clinical validation study of its HerResolve blood test for endometriosis in the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology, the official journal of the AAGL.
The multi-centre study enrolled 298 women of reproductive age across 11 clinical sites in the US, Europe and Hong Kong.
The study population was 75.8 per cent white, 9.7 per cent Black, 9.1 per cent Asian and 5 per cent non-white Hispanic participants.
It found the test identified 61.5 per cent of histologically confirmed endometriosis cases that were missed by transvaginal ultrasound and or MRI scans.
All results were validated against the gold standard of laparoscopic findings with histopathological tissue confirmation.
The headline numbers were an AUC of 0.944, specificity of 97.5 per cent and sensitivity of 80 per cent. The high specificity was a deliberate design choice, with the model optimised to minimise false positives and reduce unnecessary invasive procedures. Performance was also consistent across menstrual phases.
The blood test, called HerResolve, is a multi-omic blood-based assay that combines three serum microRNA biomarkers, three protein biomarkers, one steroid hormone, patient age and BMI into a machine learning algorithm to detect endometriosis.
Farideh Bischoff, chief medical officer at HerAnova and corresponding author of the study, said: “Endometriosis has long been one of the most underdiagnosed and undertreated conditions in women’s health.
“HerResolve was designed to work alongside existing imaging and clinical evaluation, filling a critical gap in non-invasive disease detection.”
The test is currently available at select IVF and reproductive medicine centres across the US and is positioned as a triage tool, helping identify patients who may benefit from further evaluation or empirical treatment rather than replacing surgery entirely, but potentially reserving it for treatment rather than diagnosis.
A prospective validation study is underway in geographically and ethnically diverse populations, and HerAnova is also pursuing longitudinal analyses to evaluate whether the assay can monitor treatment response over time.
Endometriosis affects approximately one in 10 women of reproductive age, yet the average diagnostic delay remains six to 11 years.
The current gold standard, laparoscopic surgery, is invasive, dependent on surgeon skill and not without risk, making a reliable non-invasive alternative one of the most sought-after tools in women’s health diagnostics.