Oncology

OVARIAN CANCER SCREENING TEST

There is an exciting breakthrough reported tonight by Yale University researchers that could mean finally, an accurate way to carry out early screening tests for ovarian cancer.

If you think about it, we have colonoscopy to screen for colon cancer, we have pap smears to look for cervical cancer, mammograms for breast cancer, and now we’re even using CAT scans to screen for lung cancer. But we don’t have anything for ovarian cancer that’s been shown to be effective, accurate, and one which can pick up the cancer before it spreads. That is, perhaps, until now.

Jill Strauss feels cornered. Her mom died of ovarian cancer, so she’s at risk. Yesterday doctors told Jill to have her ovaries removed. “This means I would go through menopause now, and my sister too. I have a cousin who actually did get a hysterectomy on her doctor’s recommendation. So I’d like to prevent that,” says Jill.

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of gynecologic cancer deaths. It’s called a silent killer because when it’s diagnosed, 75% of the time it has already spread to other parts of the body, making it difficult to cure. To date, there is no reliable screening test for ovarian cancer, to detect it early and treat it.

“We have been working with cancer, studying cancer for 50 years, so something has to be there,” argues Dr. Gil Mor. He and his team at the Yale University School of Medicine believe they have had a eureka moment--and have found what will end up being a reliable screening test for ovarian cancer.

They painstakingly looked at all the possible proteins that have been associated with all types of cancer. Four of the proteins linked very strongly to ovarian cancer. They were combined into one test.

These proteins are only fair cancer markers when used individually. But when all four of them are tested at the same time and two or more of them fall within an abnormal range, then that is an accurate predictor of ovarian cancer. Overall, it’s 95% accurate in diagnosing cancer, even early stage--stage one or two--ovarian cancer.

The findings are published in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. “This early detection is one of the most exciting things we have so far. We believe that the markers precede cancer, but we need to prove that,” Dr. Mor claims.

This would make it ideal for Jill, and even her daughter Julianna, who, because of family history, is also at risk. “We run the tests instead of deciding too quickly that they need their ovaries removed” says Dr. Mor.

“Then I could get my children tested and do the proper screening for all of the generations involved,” Jill exclaims.

This is a preliminary study; the next step is to do a bigger study with more patients, focusing especially on early stage cancer and women at risk for ovarian cancer. Still, it’s a significant breakthrough that may finally break the silence of this silent killer.

For more information on this study and ovarian cancer in general:

http://www.yale.edu/opa
www.ovarian.org/
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ovariancancer.html
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/CRI_2x.asp?sitearea=CRI&dt=33

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