Materials and Methods are provided for the diagnosis, monitoring, and personalized treatments of gynecological cancers. The methods comprise determining levels of PLA2 activity in sample of tissue or fluid recovered from patient elevated levels of PLA2 activity are consistent with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). These methods include assaying for PLA2 activity within tissue, ascites, blood, and other tissue forms by exposing the patient sample to a fluorogenic compound such as DBPC. The methods disclosed herein further include correlating the fluorogenic detection with a disease state in the patient, including diseases such as gynecological cancers, such as EOC. The methods comprise determining levels of total PLA2 activity, and of specific isoforms of PLA2 such as iPLA2, iPLA2β, cPLA2, among other isoforms.
