A blood test can help doctors catch ovarian cancer early

Ovarian cancer is often called the “silent killer.” It is three-times more deadly than breast cancer. Doctors are often unable to diagnose it until its advanced stages. Now, a new blood test may be able to help doctors catch ovarian cancer early even when very few symptoms can be identified.

Yale researchers developed and tested the new blood test. It’s based on four proteins: leptin, prolactin, osteopontin, and insulin-like growth factor-II. If the levels of two or more of these chemicals fall within a certain warning area, the test will predict the patient has cancer.

Researchers tested the screening process on 200 women. Some were already diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and some were healthy. The test correctly indicated which women had cancer 95 percent of the time and correctly indicated which women did not have cancer 95 percent of the time.

These four proteins were able, when used together, to completely discriminate between the women with cancer and those without, the report indicates.

“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.”

“Early diagnosis can help prolong or save lives,” says lead author Gil Mor, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. He says there are no tests now that are sensitive enough to detect the changes in a woman’s body that would signal the early stages of ovarian cancer.