Linda, with a Hunsinger grand nephew
I guess this
is worth a blog. I may have posted more
news about diagnostic tests for OVCA than for anything else, possibly excluding
immunotherapy. This article, however, seems to be
important. Dedicated folks at U.
Minnesota seem to have done what my now-defunct group at Fred Hutch was attempting to do;
define a group of proteins, measurable in a blood sample that can detect the
presence of ovarian cancer with high sensitivity and specificity. They are pressing forward with their
efforts. It seems that this test might
work for very early stages (this is the Holy Grail, of course) and even be easy
– and inexpensive – to apply.
Every few
weeks I go into a medical lab and have my finger pricked. A drop of blood is then transferred to a
small contrivance the size of a standard flashlight. The machine cogitates for a few seconds, and
then spews out a number that describes my blood-coagulation time. (I have atrial fibrillation, so “they” want
my blood to be thin and syrupy). I look
forward to the day when women, present at the doc’s for any reason, can donate
a drop of blood to a similar machine, to guard against ovarian cancer.
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