Proteins show promise for ovarian cancer screening

	Tweet

Elevated levels of three proteins show ovarian cancer is starting to grow years before women are diagnosed, but they do not increase soon enough to be an early indicator of the disease, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

The researchers analyzed blood samples from a large clinical trial and identified 34 women with ovarian cancer along with a control group of 70 women who did not have cancer. Their blood samples were used to evaluate six proteins identified as potential indicators of ovarian cancers.

Levels of three of the proteins began to increase slightly in ovarian cancer patients three years before diagnosis but did not reach a level that could be detected in a screening program, the researchers wrote in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"Even though an elevation appears to start in women with cancer maybe three years before her symptoms lead her to the doctor the levels aren’t really what we’d probably define as abnormal until within the last year before diagnosis,” wrote lead author Garnet Anderson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

There is no simple and reliable screening program to test for ovarian cancer in women who do not have symptoms.

Ovarian cancer, which mainly strikes older women, causes more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. Women diagnosed in the earliest stages have a five-year survival rate of nearly 93 percent, according to the American Cancer Society.

SEEKING EARLY DETECTION

Researchers seeking to a screening program to detect ovarian cancer are looking for something similar to the PSA for prostate cancer, Anderson said.

PSA, or prostate-specific antigen, is a protein monitored for early detection of prostate cancer in men.

“We’d like that for ovarian cancer because it’s clear that women who are detected at the stage where the disease is still confined to the ovaries do very well. Their prognosis is excellent,” Anderson said.

“CA125, which is one of the markers we looked at, is the best biomarker that’s been identified to date and our study confirms that and this prediagnostic period as well. But it’s not sufficiently accurate.”

In an accompanying editorial, Patricia Hartge of the National Cancer Institute said the authors had taken research at step closer to a successful screening design.

“The careful evaluation technique applied in the current study fits into a staged approach necessary for testing performance of early markers of disease,” Hartge wrote.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than $2.2 billion is spent on the treatment of ovarian cancer per year in the United States.

---
* Protein levels rise before symptoms appear

* No simple, reliable screening program

By JoAnne Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters)

RELATED STORIES:
Extracellular protein sensitizes ovarian cancer cells to chemotherapy   Research Highlights Important Indicators of Early-stage Ovarian Cancer   Stem Cells Could be Used for Personalized Cancer Treatment   Optimistic women with ovarian cancer fare better   Researchers Find Ovarian Cancer Risk Related To Inherited Inflammation Genes   Soy may lessen risk of endometrial, ovarian cancers   Selumetinib Controlled Recurrent Low-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer   Experimental Drug Boosts Survival Time For Recurrent Ovarian Cancer   UBC discovery may lead to ‘smart’ therapies for breast, ovarian cancer   Possible New Therapy for Patients with Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer   UCI study finds racial, economic disparities in ovarian cancer care, survival   Trial of Topotecan following Carboplatin and Paclitaxel in treatment of ovarian cancer   GPs take more than a month to record ovarian cancer diagnosis in one in 10 cases   Drinking Tea Associated with Lower Risk of Ovarian Cancer   New technique could sustain cancer patients’ fertility   New Treatment Implications for Ovarian Cancer Unveiled   Ovarian cancer risk not affected by alcohol and smoking, but reduced by caffeine   Birth control pill lowers ovarian cancer risk - study   Project Achilles Pinpoints Vulnerabilities in Ovarian Cancer   Ovarian cancer survival influenced by MD specialty   Early periods may reduce ovarian cancer survival   Researchers identify genes that may help in ovarian cancer diagnosis and prognosis

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]