Early Ovarian Cancer Detection with a Liquid Biopsy

It's unfortunate that ovarian cancer gets diagnosed so late much of the time. The reason for this is that the disease has very subtle signs in the beginning. The signs are so vague that most women wouldn't think twice about them. These could include slight changes in urination as well as mild discomforts in the pelvic area.

In the United States, it's estimated that more than 20 thousand women will get diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2018. According to the American Cancer Society, about 14 thousand women will die from the disease. That makes ovarian cancer the 5th most deadly cancer in women. The disease usually strikes in older women who are in their 50s or 60s, but it can also affect younger women too.

So, unless you do not have ovaries, ovarian cancer doesn’t discriminate.

The future of ovarian cancer depends on our ability to catch it earlier

What if there was a new and better way to detect ovarian cancer? Turns out that this seemingly far-fetched vision may be closer than we think. A UK-based biotech company, called Angle, may have found an exciting solution to improve the diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Finding better ways to detect the disease is crucial to helping women get treated earlier, ultimately increasing survival!

Angle is a company that specializes in the "liquid biopsy", which is a way to analyze specimens from patients to detect various conditions such as cancer. They have found that their Pelvic Mass Triage liquid biopsy test can help distinguish whether a woman's pelvic mass or ovarian cyst is cancerous based on a simple blood test.

Liquid biopsies are a new and exciting way to detect disease

The great thing about liquid biopsies is that they are not only useful but less invasive too. They are a pretty new type of technology that can help doctors diagnose cancer using blood samples. In the past, doctors needed to take a direct sample from the tissue itself, which is much more invasive and carries a higher risk for complications. Furthermore, it's more painful and distressing for the patient compared to a simple blood test! Today, liquid biopsies can be used to help identify the presence of cancer even in the earliest stages. These tests can also help guide treatment and management planning.

Science showed that Angle's test really works!

How did Angle prove that their new test even works? A total of 200 patients were part of this trial, and in these patients, the test was able to successfully distinguish cancer from non-cancer in 95% of these cases. These promising results show that the expert technology used by the Pelvis Mass Triage test could help provide more accuracy when testing women who have a pelvic mass for cancer. This accuracy is especially important because the surgeon needs to know if a mass is malignant before they go in and operate. If it is indeed cancer, they usually need to take extra care to prevent any spread of the tumor tissue to surrounding areas of the body.

This is an extremely important discovery for ovarian cancer advancement. Read on to learn more.