A New Blood Test for Ovarian Cancer

September is Cancer Awareness Month

I recently reviewed an article about the warning symptoms of ovarian cancer.  They were: abdominal distension, urinary frequency, abdominal pain, postmenopausal bleeding, loss of appetite, rectal bleeding, and abdominal bloating.  This article has focused attention on this difficult-to-diagnose cancer.  Appropriately, the FDA has just approved a new blood test for cancer of the ovary.  It will be available later this year from Quest Diagnostics. 

The test is named OVA1, and it’s intended for use in women with a mass in the pelvis who would normally be scheduled for diagnostic surgery.  It performs five immunoassay tests for known markers for ovarian cancer – transthyretin, apolipoprotein A1, beta2-microglobulin, transferrin, and CA-125 II.  (The antigens CA-125 and CA-125 II have been used for some years as diagnostic tests for ovarian cancer, but their specificity and sensitivity leave much to be desired.)

The scores from the five individual marker assays are combined and converted to an overall score using a proprietary system, or algorithm, indicating finally the likelihood whether the pelvic mass is malignant or not.   

The sensitivity of OVA1 is 85% to 96%, depending on the type of malignancy; specificity is 50%.  These findings point the way to the best use of the test – helping decide whether women with a pelvic mass need diagnostic surgery or not.  At present, the OVA1 test is not suitable for screening in the absence of an obvious lesion of some sort.  But it’s another small step in the battle against cancer.