Ovarian Cancer Screening Test More Accurate

[ilovecyan]

Hey Ladies, I'm not sure if anyone else has posted this or something similar, but I thought it was interesting. (See below).


Ovarian Cancer Screening Test More Accurate
by Judy Paley, M.D.
Finally, the good news we've all be waiting for. A study published this week in The Lancet medical journal suggests that a new screening test for ovarian cancer will be more accurate at picking up such tumors than mammograms for breast cancer or the PSA test for prostate cancer. In a preliminary sampling, computer-assisted analysis of proteins from a simple blood sample correctly identified all 50 cases of ovarian cancer studied. Investigators used mass spectroscopy to sort through thousands of blood proteins and identified a distinct "proteomic" pattern that distinguished cancer from non-cancer. Furthermore, in contrast to the fairly non-specific CA-125 test currently available for ovarian cancer diagnosis, there was only a 5% false-positive rate. In other words, of 66 women tested who were known to be cancer free, only 3 were found to have the abnormal protein pattern. "The hairs on the back of our necks definitely went up when we unblinded the data," noted an investigator from the FDA. Kind of gives me the shivers too. This news is huge.

[silver&gold]

Great news and long overdue , i think there is more research into ovarian cancer happening now . Breast cancer seemed to get all the headlines and research programes in the uk but i can see this gradually changing now . Angie xx

[hatgal]

Wow - this sounds exactly like the LPA test that was "shelved" a while back.  It has the same specifics as the test you mention that I wonder if it is the same and is being brought back to life.  If you google LPA ovarian cancer test you will get information on it.  It was a study performed in Tampa that was over 95% reliable in detecting EARLY  ovarian cancer but was squashed for some reason (hmm... insurance reasons is what i suspect, but I won't go there now).  And it only detects ovarian cancer, not other diseases that mimic OVCA such as the CA125, which I don't think is very useful in DETECTING  OVCA, only monitoring it.

So there ya go.  I think when we see things like this, this forum needs to take it, run with it, comment on it anywhere like local papers, the web, anything so it won't go away as the LPA test did.

Best to you........ Elizabeth