Aa
Aa
A
A
A
Close
167426 tn?1254086235

New test for early detection

ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2008) — Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have developed a blood test with enough sensitivity and specificity to detect early stage ovarian cancer with 99 percent accuracy.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ovarian cancer
Results of this new study are published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research. The results build on work done by the same Yale group in 2005 showing 95 percent effectiveness of a blood test using four proteins.

"The ability to recognize almost 100 percent of new tumors will have a major impact on the high death rates of this cancer," said Mor. "We hope this test will become the standard of care for women having routine examinations."

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the leading cause of gynecologic cancer deaths in the United States and three times more lethal than breast cancer. It is usually not diagnosed until its advanced stages and has come to be known as the "silent killer."

This new phase II clinical trial led by Gil Mor, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale, included 500 patients; 350 healthy controls and 150 ovarian cancer patients. Mor and colleagues validated the previous research and used a new platform called multiplex technology to simplify the test into one single reaction using very small amounts of serum from the blood. The new platform uses six protein biomarkers instead of four, increasing the specificity of the test from 95 to 99.4 percent. The team looked for the presence of specific proteins and quantified the concentration of those proteins in the blood.

The Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) independently evaluated the results of the test.

"This is the most sensitive and specific test currently available," said Mor. "Previous tests recognized 15 to 20 percent of new tumors. Proteins from the tumors were the only biomarkers used to test for ovarian cancer. That is okay when you have big masses of tumors, but it is not applicable in very early phases of the tumor. Testing the proteins produced by the body in response to the presence of the tumor as well as the proteins the tumors produce, helped us to create a unique picture that can detect early ovarian cancer."

Mor and colleagues have begun a phase III evaluation in a multi-center clinical trial. In collaboration with EDRN/NCI and Laboratories Corporation of America (LabCorp), they are testing close to 2,000 patients.

The test is available at Yale through the Discovery to Cure program. Yale has licensed the test to three companies: Lab Corp in the United States, Teva in Israel and SurExam in China.

4 Responses
Sort by: Helpful Oldest Newest
408448 tn?1286883821
Thanks for posting this. Too late for me, but I have 2 daughters and 2 grandaughters. This makes me hopeful for them.
Helpful - 0
272338 tn?1252280404
  Thank you so much for sharing this with us Marty. This sounds like it could be the break through that we have been waiting for. I got so excited reading it.
  How are the grandkids doing? Getting better I hope. Two of mine are sick now with the flu.
  I don't know how much you have been able to keep up with, but one of the girls started a thread about bomb barding the Oprah show with e-mails asking them to do a show on ov ca. So they have gotten quite a few of them in the last few days. I don't know if they will pay much attention to them, but it is worth a try. One way or another we will get someone to listen to us.
  I want to thank you again for your care and support with the hair thing. I gave up on it today and went ahead and got it shaved. It wasn't worth hanging on to at the rate it was coming out, there was hair everywhere. And I am ok with it.
  Take care and I hope the kids are feeling better soon. But as cold as it is, I think Arizona would be great right now. See you when you get home.
         Love Chris
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Thanks for posting that.  I sure hope this is going to work....
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hey ,this sounds like great news. I just read the article. Hope it won't take too long to be used as a standard part of diagnosing disease.. Thanks for the insight.....
Helpful - 0
Have an Answer?

You are reading content posted in the Ovarian Cancer Community

Didn't find the answer you were looking for?
Ask a question
Popular Resources
Learn how to spot the warning signs of this “silent killer.”
Diet and digestion have more to do with cancer prevention than you may realize
A list of national and international resources and hotlines to help connect you to needed health and medical services.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.