PROVIDENCE – A researcher at Women & Infants Hospital has found a new way to predict whether an ovarian mass is cancerous by testing for two proteins in the bloodstream, an improvement over existing tests that the hospital says could sharply improve diagnostics.
Dr. Richard Moore, who is also director of the Medical Education Program in Women’s Oncology at The Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, unveiled his research last week at a meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists in Tampa.
Testing for one protein, CA125II, has been considered the “gold standard” for monitoring ovarian cancer in recent years, but Moore also tested levels of another protein, HE4, which he found maximized the sensitivity and specificity of the test. He has used it on 496 women so far, and 95 percent of those identified as “high risk” were, indeed, found to have cancer.
More accurate tests can help women with benign masses avoid surgery and identify those who need immediate specialized care more promptly. Roughly 20 percent of women will be diagnosed with an ovarian cyst or tumor at some point in their lives, Moore said, but only a small percentage will actually have ovarian cancer. •
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