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Recent news out of Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center shows that progress is being made in understanding the roles that biomarkers may have in developing a method of early detection for ovarian cancer.
In the January 6, 2010 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, researchers determined that three cancer "biomarkers" show up in blood tests long before symptoms occur. Unfortunately they don't show up early enough to be useful as a true early detection mechanism for ovarian cancer.
In this study, 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 biomarkers identified as potential indicators of ovarian cancers. Researchers found that three of six biomarkers, including CA125, increased in cancer patients up to three years before diagnosis, compared with patients without ovarian cancer.
Unfortunately, at that very early stage, the proteins weren't elevated enough to be detected in a screening program. Only at a year or less before the women were diagnosed did the biomarkers' levels in the blood rise enough that they could more accurately predict the presence of ovarian cancer.
Scientists clearly have more work to do to find a reliable method of early detection, but this important work helps researchers understand the role that biomarkers may play in designing a successful early detection program - which doctors, patients, and families are eager for.
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