WOMENS-HEALTH Messages for May, 1999: Re: just some questions.....For Dave

Re: just some questions.....For Dave

From: Barbara (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Fri, 14 May 1999 22:23:59 -0500 (CDT)

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In reply to: Lea: "Re: just some questions.....For Dave"

Dear Dave,

I can add nothing to the wonderful words Lea has written to you.

But I am going to send you this article I just read. If your wife is worried then with her family history she may well be a godd canidate for this test. Please read it and share it with your wife.

Perhaps you could suggest going with her to the doctor and give here some additional support.

May 4,1999 NEWS The MEDICAL POST page 43

Ovarian CA marker screens best if done annually

Early detection could save more than 5,000 lives annually in North America

By ED SUSMAN

PHILADELPHIA - Screening for the ovarian cancer marker CA125 can pinpoint women who have contracted the disease at a point when it is still curable. if all women were to undergo the screening program in the United States as many as 5,000 women's lives could be saved each year, researchers told the annual meeting of the American associa- tion for Cancer Research here. Dr. Stephen Skates (Ph.D.), assistant professor of biostatistics at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said screening examinations for ovarian cancer will have to be conducted yearly because there is only a two-year window in which markers begin to show tumour activity before the cancer is visible. He said cost-conscious officials are debating the merits of screening yearly or every18 months or every two years, but his study clearly shows waiting more than 12 months between screenings would miss a window of opportunity to cure ovarian cancers. In a study in England involving 22,000 women, ovarian cancers were found earlier in those women who were screened for CA125, a blood protein associated with cancer growth. "Forty per cent of these cancers were found early," Dr. Skates said. Cancers detected early have a 90% cure rate, he added. Dr. Robert Best, chief of medicine at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, said early detection is important because "70% of women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed in late stages of the disease where less than 20% of patients survive five years." Dr. Best said the "velocity" of the change in CA125 is what scientists believe is the key to recognizing that cancer has erupted. In the English study, Dr. Skates and colleagues took blood samples from the women and analysed them for levels of CA125. Sixteen women who had a level of 30 base units or higher were immediately sent for an ultrasound examination. ultrasounds and CA125 tests were repeated every three months, until a cancer could be identified. CA125 baselines were obtained for the rest of the women and they were divided into two groups: no surveillance or yearly surveillance with CA125 testing. If the levels showed an increase, the women underwent an ultrasound examination to see if abnormalities in the ovary could be identified. If the ultrasound was negative - meaning the growth was too small to be visualized, the woman returned in three months to see if the CA125 level was still rising. Repeat examinations were conducted at three-month intervals. If ultrasound picked up a tumour, the woman was sent to consult with a surgeon. In the no-surveillance group, 23 women developed ovarian cancer; 28 in the surveillance group. Cancers in the surveillance group were detected at stage 1. Dr. Skates said a clinical trial involving 125,000 women is being planned to prove the value of the screening test. About 25,200 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the USA each year Dr.Skates said screening could save the lives of about 4,500 to 5,000 more of these women a year. He predicted the ovarian screening costs would be about the same as mammography screening for breast cancer. He said postmenopausal women and women over 50 would be the subjects for ovarian cancer screening. Dr. Best said the disease is rarely seen before age 40 so that 50 years of age would be a proper cutoff for screening.

Barbara >Coordinator, OBGYN.net Chronic Pelvic Pain and Laparoscopy & Hysteroscopy Sections
>my opinion is my own and comes from nothing but life experience.
>

--
Barbara Nesbitt
Editor, OBGYN.net

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