US researchers may have come up with a test that reliably detects Ovarian cancer in its early stages, when it is more easily curable.

Ovarian cancer is a ‘silent’ disease early on, and is often not diagnosed until it is advanced and difficult to remedy.

The newly reported test measures levels of four protein markers in blood - leptin, prolactin, osteopontin, and insulin-like growth factor-II - according to a report in the Early Edition of the research journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The developers of the test, Dr. Gil Mor from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues, examined its ability to distinguish between 106 disease-free subjects and 100 ovarian cancer patients, including 24 diagnosed with early-stage disease.

Prolactin and osteopontin levels were significantly elevated in women with early Ovarian cancer, the researchers report, whereas leptin and insulin-like growth factor-II levels were significantly reduced.

These four proteins were able, when used together, to completely discriminate between the women with cancer and those without, the report indicates.

“The extent to which leptin, osteopontin, prolactin, and insulin-like growth factor-II can serve as potential biomarkers of cancers other than early ovarian cancer must be investigated rigorously,” the researchers point out.

“Nevertheless,” they conclude, “the data presented here support the existence of a highly accurate and distinct multiplex proteomic set that can accurately distinguish between normal and early ovarian cancer patients, including stage I and II.”

SOURCE: PNAS Early Edition, May 9, 2005.