Another Ovarian Cancer Marker — Almost There?

Ovarian cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer deaths in U.S. women. The biomarker CA125 is helpful in distinguishing benign from malignant pelvic masses, but its specificity is low in premenopausal women. In a study designed to examine the diagnostic value of circulating cell-free nuclear and mitochondrial DNA levels (which have been associated previously with other cancers), investigators recruited women with epithelial ovarian cancer (n=21: 8 “borderline tumor,” 4 early-stage invasive carcinoma, and 9 advanced-stage invasive carcinoma), benign epithelial ovarian tumors (n=24), endometriosis (n=23), and age-matched healthy controls (n=36) and collected information on pretreatment tumor size and CA125 levels. The researchers then…