New Test For Ovarian Cancer Can Detect It At Early Stage And Is 100% Accurate

Main Category: Ovarian Cancer
Also Included In: Medical Devices / Diagnostics
Article Date: 24 Jul 2004 - 18:00 PDT

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A new test can detect ovarian cancer early with, apparently, 100% accuracy, say US scientists. A sample of a woman's blood is used in a high-resolution mass spectrometry test to measure patterns of protein markers. The test identifies cells that will lead to cancer.

You can read about this breakthrough in the journal Endocrine-Related Cancer. The research was carried out by Dr Tim Veenstra and his team, Biomedical Proteomics Program, Frederick, USA.

The scientists say we could be just a few years away from offering routine diagnosis of early ovarian cancer.

In the UK 6,800 women get ovarian cancer every year. It is the 4th most common cancer for women. Unfortunately, most women find out they have it when the cancer has been developing for quite a while.

Early detection is crucial for effective treatment.

The test (High-resolution mass spectrometry) is able to measure tiny differences in the weights between normal proteins and cancerous ones. In other words, it tells us which cells are going to become cancerous.

The tests were 100% accurate. Tests were carried out on samples from women with and without ovarian cancer - not one mistake was made. Even the early stage cancers were detected.

Dr Veenstra said "This method promises a real step forward in detecting ovarian cancer at an early stage. We hope that within a few years we will be able to develop a system which will enter routine diagnostic use. If we can eventually use this technology for a screening method to identify more women that have early stage ovarian cancer the we need a technique that is very, very accurate. If it was to generate even 1% false negative or false positive you would send way too many women for unnecessary biopsies and you would also miss cases of ovarian cancer. We were able to discriminate all of the samples correctly."