Will high-tech tests revolutionize the early detection of ovarian Ca?
Will the cutting-edge technology of protein profiling revolutionize medicine in general and early ovarian cancer detection in particular?
DETECTING OVARIAN CANCER
Will high-tech tests revolutionize the early detection of ovarian Ca?
By David A. Fishman, MD, Jennifer O'Rourke, RN, APN, Nita Karnik, MD, Diljeet Singh, MD, and Leeber Cohen, MD
Will the cutting-edge technology of protein profiling revolutionize medicine in general and early ovarian cancer detection in particular?
Some 23,300 American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and 14,000 will die from the disease. Even though this cancer is curable if detected early on, it remains the leading cause of death among all gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth most common female cancer. Moreover, its incidence has been steadily rising over the past 10 years, with a woman's overall lifetime risk now up to 1.8%.1
Despite improvements in median survival through surgical advances and new chemotherapeutic regimens, the overall 5-year survival rate for women with stage III/IV epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC) has barely budged from a dismal 12% over the past 30 years. In contrast, women diagnosed with disease confined to the ovary (stage IA-IB), require less morbid surgical intervention, may not need adjuvant chemotherapy, have an improved quality of life, and most importantly, nearly nine of every 10 will survive for 5 years.2,3
Thereforeshort of an effective therapythe early detection of early-stage EOC is the best way to improve survival. The challenge is to develop highly sensitive and specific methods that can be applied to the general population for the detection of early-stage ovarian cancer.
It's our goal in this article to discuss the development of new tumor marker tests with potential higher accuracy than the current serum biomarker CA125, new detection tests, and experimental technologies currently being evaluated by the National Cancer Institute as part of the National Ovarian Cancer Early Detection Program (Table 1). If we are correct, the use of genomics and proteomicsthe study of protein shape, function, and patterns of expressionscould revolutionize medicine by identifying aberrant gene and protein expression, permitting us to identify premalignant or malignant cells on the molecular levelbefore physical changes can be seen under a microscope.
TABLE 1
Selected ovarian cancer resources
National Ovarian Cancer Coalition
1-888-OVARIAN
National Ovarian Cancer Early Detection Program
312-926-6606
Ovarian Cancer National Alliance
202-331-1332
The American Board of Genetic Counseling
301-571-1825
The Gynecological Cancer Foundation-Women's Cancer Network
1-800-444-4441