Potential Breakthrough In Screening For Ovarian Cancer, Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute

Main Category: Ovarian Cancer
Article Date: 02 Jul 2004 - 19:00 PDT


A study of hundreds of women from four hospitals showing that lysophospholipids are present in high levels in women with ovarian cancer but low in healthy women - a major finding - could lead to a simple blood test for ovarian cancer. This is a welcome development in the field of cancer research because lack of an effective screening test for ovarian cancer creates mortality rates that are higher than for many other cancers.

"This finding could be incredibly important in our fight against ovarian cancer," says Rebecca Sutphen, M.D., of H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, principal author of the three-year study funded by the American Cancer Society whose results are published in the July 7 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

"Two thirds of the patients are diagnosed when the cancer is already advanced - Stage 3 or 4. At that point, the cure rate is only in the range of 25 percent. The problem has always been that we have no early detection strategy," she explains.

"The goal of the Tampa Bay Ovarian Study was to see if this group of lysophospholipids could potentially be useful as a detection test. Almost all healthy women have low levels of these substances. As for the patients, the vast majority of them have high levels of these substances."

The lysophospholipids were first identified as a potential biomarker by Yan Xu of the Cleveland Clinic, also an author of the current study titled "Lysophospholipids Are Potential Biomarkers of Ovarian Cancer." According to Sutphen, the Moffitt collaboration, which included the University of South Florida Health Sciences Center, is the first study to confirm Xu's hunch. The results were possible because collection and transport of blood samples (in contrast to earlier studies) employed exacting standards for delivery and processing prior to liquid chromatography/mass spectroscopy assay.

The project represents an unusually large collaboration among hospitals in the Tampa Bay area. Doctors from Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater - a Moffitt affiliated hospital - and Tampa General Hospital in Tampa contributed to the study, as did community doctors from Bay Area Oncology in Tampa.

According to Brian R.G. Williams, Ph.D., chairman of cancer biology at The Cleveland Clinic, the study, which involved a large group of patients, "was conducted in a blinded manner. Dr. Xu and her colleagues did not know whether the samples were from patients with ovarian cancer or healthy individuals when they carried out the tests. Furthermore, lysopholipids were shown to decrease in patients following surgery for their cancer. This suggests the future utility of the test will not only be in detecting early stage ovarian cancer which is frequently missed at present but also in following patients after surgery to check for recurrence of disease. There are no other tests available or at this stage of development that can do this."

Ovarian cancer is a relatively rare cancer, but because of its high mortality rate, it kills some 14,300 American women each year.

In 93 percent of the cases, the blood test was an accurate predictor of whether the woman had ovarian cancer. Less than four percent of the 117 women studied could be characterized as "false positives." But before the blood test is used as a mass screening tool, researchers should "find a combination of markers to get the accuracy rate up to 100 percent," Sutphen says.

If other indications of ovarian cancer can be identified and put together with the blood test for the lipids, the prediction rate could be boosted to 100 percent accuracy, Sutphen suggests. Meanwhile, the blood test could potentially be used to screen high-risk women.

Sutphen is the Director of the Cancer Genetic Counseling and Testing Service at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology at USF and is the Director of the Family Cancer Genetics Network. http://www.fcgn.org .

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention features articles on the causes and prevention of cancer in humans. The journal draws on the work of epidemiologists, laboratory scientists, and medical and behavioral researchers. It is published by the American Association for Cancer Research. http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org

Founded in 1907, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is a professional society of more than 22,000 laboratory and clinical scientists engaged in basic, translational, and clinical cancer research in the United States and over 60 other countries. The AACR's mission is to accelerate the prevention and cure of cancer through research, education, communication, and advocacy.

In 2001, the National Cancer Institute awarded Moffitt the status of a Comprehensive Cancer Center - in recognition of its excellence in research and contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Additionally, Moffitt is a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a prestigious alliance of the country's leading cancer centers, and is listed in the U.S. News & World Report as one of the top cancer hospitals in America. Moffitt's sole mission is to contribute to the prevention and cure of cancer.

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