A USEFUL NEW TEST

Linda at the Seashore

Apparently there is, or has been, a serious problem determining if an anomalous pelvic mass in a woman is or is not dangerous.   I seem to understand that the evidence currently used in diagnosis is concentration of the protein CA125; if it is high enough, the surgeon goes to work.  All too often, though, the post-operation report goes something like “Woops!  Just a benign growth, after all.  Could have been ignored.  That will be $30,000, please.”  In other words, the statistical “specificity” is poor.

Well, a Brit outfit called Angle has developed a “liquid biopsy” (more commonly referred to as a blood test) that has double the previous specificity.  The test is called the Parsortix test, and how it works is not explained, other than it involves RNA somehow.

Not a cure, not prevention – but useful just the same.

http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/angle-reports-successful-headline-data-us-european-ovarian-cancer-studies-400-patients-aim-agl-2224784.htm