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NEW BLOOD TEST TO DETECT OVARIAN CANCER
Interesting article:
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
WASHINGTON — An experimental test that uses antibodies to detect ovarian tumor cells in the blood correctly identified 16 of 17 women who had the cancer, a Belgian company said on Tuesday.
MabCure Inc said its monoclonal antibodies threw up no false positives — meaning none of them incorrectly identified the blood of healthy women as carrying tumors.
"The availability of a simple blood test with the ability to diagnose the presence of ovarian cancer early and to differentiate it from benign tumors has the potential to save thousands of lives and reduce the need for unnecessary surgery," Amnon Gonenne, CEO of MabCure, said in a statement.
"Our findings are an important step in that direction and also have significant implications for the future development of cancer-specific targeted therapies."
If detected early, ovarian cancer can be cured, but more than 70 percent of women have advanced disease by the time they are diagnosed. Ovarian cancer kills 15,000 U.S. women each year, and 140,000 globally.
Symptoms of ovarian cancer are vague and often missed. A protein called CA-125 is elevated in ovarian cancer cells but is not a good test to screen for early cancer.
MabCure has designed lab engineered monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), which are immune system proteins, that were designed to specifically home in on ovarian tumors.
They tested several different versions using blood samples from 17 patients with ovarian cancer, five patients with benign tumors of the ovaries, 24 healthy young females and eight males at UZ Hospital in Leuven, Belgium.
Each version correctly diagnosed 16 of the 17 ovarian cancers, a diagnostic sensitivity of 94 percent, the company said.
"MabCure is currently evaluating the diagnostic potential of its MAbs in detecting ovarian cancer in high-risk patients in a clinical study in Thailand," the company said in a statement.
__._,_.___
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
WASHINGTON — An experimental test that uses antibodies to detect ovarian tumor cells in the blood correctly identified 16 of 17 women who had the cancer, a Belgian company said on Tuesday.
MabCure Inc said its monoclonal antibodies threw up no false positives — meaning none of them incorrectly identified the blood of healthy women as carrying tumors.
"The availability of a simple blood test with the ability to diagnose the presence of ovarian cancer early and to differentiate it from benign tumors has the potential to save thousands of lives and reduce the need for unnecessary surgery," Amnon Gonenne, CEO of MabCure, said in a statement.
"Our findings are an important step in that direction and also have significant implications for the future development of cancer-specific targeted therapies."
If detected early, ovarian cancer can be cured, but more than 70 percent of women have advanced disease by the time they are diagnosed. Ovarian cancer kills 15,000 U.S. women each year, and 140,000 globally.
Symptoms of ovarian cancer are vague and often missed. A protein called CA-125 is elevated in ovarian cancer cells but is not a good test to screen for early cancer.
MabCure has designed lab engineered monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), which are immune system proteins, that were designed to specifically home in on ovarian tumors.
They tested several different versions using blood samples from 17 patients with ovarian cancer, five patients with benign tumors of the ovaries, 24 healthy young females and eight males at UZ Hospital in Leuven, Belgium.
Each version correctly diagnosed 16 of the 17 ovarian cancers, a diagnostic sensitivity of 94 percent, the company said.
"MabCure is currently evaluating the diagnostic potential of its MAbs in detecting ovarian cancer in high-risk patients in a clinical study in Thailand," the company said in a statement.
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They've only tried the test on 50+ people but the results are already astounding. Rarely do you get that kind of accuracy in a test. And how long will it be before we use it here in the states? If I'm reading the article correctly it only mentions Belgium and Thailand. I'm glad somebody is doing research but let's spread the news.
we need to push the companies into getting this done. Need to find out who to write to get this going. To many lives lost, too many people suffering. Ladies lets get organized. We can do this, we just need to yell loud enough
Wow this would be a blessing!! Thanks for the news. Will keep my eye on this one. Jane.
This is great news !
Thanks for sharing......this would make it much easier to detect a recurrence earlier as well. That would put a lot of us at ease when we have our annual exams.
Thanks again.
Peace.
dian
Thanks for sharing......this would make it much easier to detect a recurrence earlier as well. That would put a lot of us at ease when we have our annual exams.
Thanks again.
Peace.
dian
this needs to be put on the fast track, no more waits, just select a hugh section of women and do the test. If according to this, over 100,000 women could be saved per year. the states need to get VERY interested in this process. Thanks Pam for your sharp eyes in finding this. Marty
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