Epitope presentation is an important determinant of the utility of antigens identified from protein arrays in the development of autoantibody diagnostic assays

► Assessment of diagnostic utility of early and late stage ovarian cancer candidate biomarkers. ► Epitope presentation in validation phase as partly explaining high attrition rate of autoantigens. ► Results of autoantibodies to tumour suppressor p53 and to novel adducin and endosulphine alpha proteins.