Researchers have developed a blood test that can accurately detect ovarian cancer in women with a growth in their pelvis.
The test involves capturing rare cells from the blood samples of women waiting for biopsies or surgery, and analysing them for 72 different gene transcripts, as well as several common biomarkers (including the protein CA125) already known to be linked with ovarian cancer.
'This is an important step forward for the detection of ovarian cancer in patients with a pelvic mass,' said Dr Richard Moore and director of the gynaecologic oncology programme at the Wilmot Cancer Institute at the University of Rochester in New York.
'The fact that we can capture circulating tumour cells,' which he describes as rare, living cells that break off from the original tumour, 'and analyse them from a simple blood draw is extremely exciting.'
Dr Moore's study involved 183 participants who were aged between 19 and 91 years. Nine gene transcripts and four blood biomarkers were found to be useful for detecting cancer among the group. Indeed, when used together with the researchers' novel algorithm, the indicators were able to detect the cancers with 83 percent accuracy.
If ovarian cancer is caught early, stage 1, the five-year survival rate is 94 percent, but only 14 percent of cases are diagnosed at this stage. If cancer metastasizes then survival rate drops to 45 percent, so it is important that the cancer is caught early before it spreads beyond the ovaries and fallopian tubes.
'Accurate risk stratification for patients presenting with a pelvic mass is essential for optimum management' wrote Dr Moore and his team in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. 'Surgical intervention for patients with ovarian cancer performed by a gynaecologic oncologist is associated with improved morbidity and mortality and better overall survival.'
Speaking about her involvement in the study, Toni Masci from Fairport, Rochester, New York who provided blood samples to the study and was diagnosed with stage 1 ovarian cancer in 2017 said: 'I feel lucky to be part of this. As most people know, ovarian cancer usually doesn’t get detected early. If Dr Moore hadn't been doing this research, we might not have had this advance and I might not be here.'
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