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Study finds biomarker for ovarian cancer

Category: Ovarian

Study finds biomarker for ovarian cancer

Researchers working to discover a more effective ovarian cancer test believe they have found a biomarker that can better predict a woman's risk for developing the disease.

Ovarian cancer is highly treatable when it is caught in its early stages, but there are relatively few reliable tests for the disease. Quite often, it is not discovered until it has progressed and become difficult to treat. Currently, nearly two-thirds of women who are diagnosed with the disease die from it.

However, researchers believe that the presence of a particular protein produced by cells of the immune system may signal the presence of ovarian cancer.

Joshua LeBaer, who led the investigation, said that doctors currently have few tools available to diagnose the condition, and any new cancer test would be a major advancement.

"This is a disease for which an early diagnostic test would make an enormous difference in the health of women," he said. "By the time it's caught it has usually speckled the abdomen with advanced tumors."

Ovarian cancer kills 14,600 women in the U.S. each year, according to the National Cancer Institute.