Radio Shows | Urine Test for Ovarian Cancer | mp3 … wma … wav

Cancer patients who are diagnosed in the early stages have a good shot at being cured.

The problem is early detection is not always possible.

Ovarian cancer is one where once it's found it's often too late. That's why it's called a silent killer. Every year twenty thousand women develop ovarian cancer and fifteen thousand die from advanced disease.

The early symptoms include bloating and constipation which are so common they're usually ignored or attributed to something benign.

That's why just twenty percent of ovarian cancers are caught early, at stage one. With treatment, these women are normally cured since ninety percent of early cases are curable.

But the cruel fact is by the time current testing methods detect the cancer, it has already spread beyond the ovaries. Only thirty percent of patients have long term survival which means the vast majority will die from the disease.

That's why a new urine test under development is so exciting.

It detects a protein called Bcl-dash-2 which is elevated in women even in Stage I of the disease.

For years we've known this is a "signature" protein in ovarian tumor cells but only recently did researchers find elevated levels in the urine.

Not only is it cheap to have urine tested, it can be done on a routine visit to your ob-gyn, both reasons why this test is so valuable.

Right now a blood test is used to diagnose ovarian cancer but the protein it detects often doesn't show up in the early stages.

Plus other ailments can cause CA125 to rise. It is best used to track the progression of ovarian cancer and the effectiveness of treatments.

Right now the new urine test is still in clinical trials but it is on the path to FDA approval.

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