Abstract: Ovarian cancer has insidious onset and seriously endangers women′s health. The 5-year survival rate is extremely low due to lack of effective treatment. The mortality rate ranks first among gynecological malignant tumors. Therefore, the early diagnosis, early detection of recurrence and metastasis about ovarian cancer is of great significance, which is an urgent clinical condition waiting for improvement. However, the previous pathological examination and imaging examination of solid tumors cannot better change this situation. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a kind of circulating free DNA (cfDNA) released after tumor cell necrosis and apoptosis, which carries all the epigenetic characteristics of tumor genome. As one of liquid biopsy method, ctDNA detection can reflect the state of tumor constantly and dynamically. In recent years, ctDNA detection has played an increasingly important role in early diagnosis, drug resistance prediction and efficacy evaluation of ovarian cancer. The article reviews application progress of ctDNA in clinical diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer, discusses the problems that need to be solved, and provides potential directions for its application in ovarian cancer.

Key words: Ovarian neoplasms, DNA, neoplasm, Blood circulation, Genes, Mutation