Ovarian cancer is one of the most aggressive gynaecological malignancies and most often the high mortality is a direct result of delays in diagnosis. The development of an ovarian cancer-specific biomarker for the early detection of disease has the capacity to improve the dismal survival rate. Currently, there are multiple investigations that are utilising both genomic and proteomic technologies to identify genes, gene products and proteins that may potentially identify diagnostic ovarian cancer biomarkers. Here, we review the studies that are involved in biomarker development for the detection of ovarian cancer.