UCLA scientists recently discovered a panel of four proteins
that enabled them to detect early-stage ovarian cancer with around
99 percent accuracy.
This breakthrough will impact the lives of many women because
“it enables the detection of ovarian cancer in its earliest
stages, which creates the hope for a better survival rate,”
said Srinivasa T. Reddy, an associate professor at the David Geffen
School of Medicine.
The discovery allows doctors to detect cancer by checking blood
samples for the presence of protein markers, which are a set of
specific proteins that are found in the blood of cancer patients.
“Before this method, doctors would examine patients by
performing physical exams or ultrasounds, which detect cancer in
its later stage,” said Dr. Robin Farias-Eisner, professor and
physician at UCLA, and chief of the gynecologic oncology department
at the UCLA Medical Center.
Detection of cancer in its earlier stages is crucial because
“when ovarian cancer is detected in its later stages, the
chance of living beyond five years is less than 20 percent,”
said Reddy. “But if you detect it in its early stage, the
five-year survival rate is 90 percent.”
According to the National Cancer Institute, epithelial ovarian
cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer-related death in women
in the U.S. It has the highest mortality rate of all cancers of the
female reproductive system because it is often diagnosed at an
advanced stage, after it has spread from the outer surface of the
ovary to the rest of the body.
Even in late-stage ovarian cancer, the panel can help by
“monitoring treatments for advanced cases, where patients
treated with chemotherapy can be checked for recurrence of the
disease,” said Farias-Eisner.
The combination of five specific protein markers makes the test
very accurate. Detecting the presence of protein markers in blood
samples is becoming an important focus in many areas of cancer
research, said Reddy.
“We are comparing and investigating the protein
differentiation of other cancers, including prostate and lung
cancer blood samples,” said Seng Su, a lab technician at
Farias-Eisner’s Center for Biomarker Discovery.
The research team at this laboratory is waiting for the FDA to
approve the four new protein markers as a panel that can be used to
detect ovarian cancer. Prior to this discovery, CA 125, which was
the standard tumor protein marker, had only 67 percent accuracy for
detecting malignant tumors. By itself, the new panel has an
accuracy rate of 84 percent, and combined with CA 125, the accuracy
rate approaches 100 percent, said Reddy.
The UCLA team has already patented these markers, and is now
attempting to work with the bioengineering department to develop a
device that could detect the five proteins in one simple blood
test, said Reddy.
“In the future, it is conceivable that protein detecting
technology can make testing for cancer as simple as a take-home
pregnancy test,” he said.
The scientific community still awaits the discovery of proteins
that detect other specific cancers.