Discovery to Cure: Early Detection of Ovarian CancerOne in fifty-seven women in the United States will develop ovarian cancer in her lifetime, the fifth most common cancer in women. In 2005, it is estimated that about 25,580 new cases of ovarian cancer will be diagnosed and 16,090 women will die of the disease. The department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale University has created a comprehensive women’s reproductive cancer treatment and early detection program known as Discovery to Cure. Launched in 2003, the Discovery to Cure initiative focuses on exploring new methods for the prevention, early detection, and treatment of ovarian cancer. This past year has already brought significant advances in the treatment of ovarian cancer with the clinical use of the anti-cancer drug, phenoxodiol. In addition to identifying novel treatments for ovarian cancer, The Discovery to Cure program is focused on developing disease markers that can predict the response to chemotherapy and therefore help determine the best method of treatment for women diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Using the extensive research resources of Discovery to Cure’s Tissue and Blood Bank, which contains over 500 tissue samples of primary and metastatic ovarian cancers as well as blood samples, we have developed the screening tools to enable physicians to detect ovarian cancer at its earliest stage. After having developed a test for the detection of ovarian cancer with a specificity of 99.3% and sensitivity of 95.8%, the validation of the test is now in its final stages. The test will be available to patients throughout the country as a diagnostic test by Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp). The time frame for this is not available as yet but will be released by LabCorp in the near future. However, due to the high interest in the test by the Ob/Gyn community, the test may be available here at Yale in the near future as a non-FDA approved diagnostic test once the appropriate certifications are in place. Please check this site periodically for updates on our progress in making this test available as an interim measure while LabCorp seeks regulatory approval to offer the test widely. Publications describing the screening tests: Gil Mor, Irene Visintin, Yinglei Lai, Hongyu Zhao, Peter Schwartz, Thomas Rutherford, Luo Yue, Patricia Bray-Ward, and David C. Ward. Serum protein markers for early detection of ovarian cancer, PNAS 2005:102 (2), 7677–7682. |
