Off Topic: ovarian cancer test

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

We just received this e-mail from a young friend who is an M.D. at

Yale. My mother, her sister and her sister's daughter all had ovarian

cancer, so I am interested!

Sue ,

Upstate New York

======================

I highly recommend you ask your OB/GYN for this panel of 4 blood tests

at your next visit. It is the first assay to accurately detect early

ovarian cancer through a blood test--a real breakthrough, developed

here at Yale OB/GYN dept. I would be surprised if it doesn't become

standard of care immediately. Forward to any of your female

friends/family.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews & storyID=8439562

Blood test accurately detects early ovarian cancer

Tue May 10, 2005 07:27 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - US researchers may have come up with a

test that reliably detects ovarian cancer in its early stages, when it

is more easily curable.

Ovarian cancer is a 'silent' disease early on, and is often not

diagnosed until it is advanced and difficult to remedy.

The newly reported test measures levels of four protein markers in

blood -- leptin, prolactin, osteopontin, and insulin-like growth

factor-II -- according to a report in the Early Edition of the

research journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The developers of the test, Dr. Gil Mor from Yale University School of

Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues, examined its

ability to distinguish between 106 disease-free subjects and 100

ovarian cancer patients, including 24 diagnosed with early-stage

disease.

Prolactin and osteopontin levels were significantly elevated in women

with early ovarian cancer, the researchers report, whereas leptin and

insulin-like growth factor-II levels were significantly reduced.

These four proteins were able, when used together, to completely

discriminate between the women with cancer and those without, the

report indicates.

" The extent to which leptin, osteopontin, prolactin, and insulin-like

growth factor-II can serve as potential biomarkers of cancers other

than early ovarian cancer must be investigated rigorously, " the

researchers point out.

" Nevertheless, " they conclude, " the data presented here support the

existence of a highly accurate and distinct multiplex proteomic set

that can accurately distinguish between normal and early ovarian

cancer patients, including stage I and II. "

SOURCE: PNAS Early Edition, May 9, 2005.