Blood Tests Stratify Women at Risk of Ovarian Cancer

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 03 Feb 2009

The combination of two simple blood tests helps to estimate the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer in premenopausal or postmenopausal.

The HE4 enzyme immunoassay (EIA) successfully stratified patients who presented with pelvic mass into high- and low-risk groups when combined with a test for the ovarian cancer marker CA125. Results of these two simple blood tests together with the Risk of Ovarian Malignancy Algorithm (ROMA) identified patients at a high risk of having ovarian cancer.

Professor Richard G. Moore, director of medical education program in women's oncology at Women and Infants' Hospital, and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Brown University (Providence, RI, USA), and colleagues conducted the prospective, double blind, multicenter trial involving 566 women.

A product of Fujirebio Diagnostics, (Malvern, PA, USA) the HE4 assay was cleared by the United States Food and Drug organization (FDA; Rockville, MD, USA) as an aid for monitoring recurrence of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), the most common type of ovarian cancer.

The results of the study were published in the January 2009 issue of the journal Gynecologic Oncology.

Related Links:
Brown University
Fujirebio Diagnostics
United States Food and Drug organization