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Quelle:
Fachblatt The Lancet
Wird
es in einigen Jahren den ersten zuverlässigen Test auf Eierstockkrebs
geben? Die Chancen stehen gut.
von
Dr. med. Jochen Kubitschek
Wird ein Eierstockkrebs rechtzeitig erkannt, so beträgt die Fünfjahres-Überlebensrate
95%. Leider gibt es aber bis heute keine zuverlässige, praxistaugliche
Methode, um einen bösartigen OvVerdanatumor rechtzeitig zu erkennen.
Daher werden derzeit - meist durch einen Zufall bedingt - nicht
mehr als 25% der Tumore in einem Frühstadium erkannt. Die
verbleibenden 75% werden in einem späteren Krankheitsstadium entdeckt
- dann sinkt die Überlebensrate für die nächsten 5 Jahre aber
auf unter 30%.
Nun wurde im renommierten englischen Fachblatt The Lancet über
eine computerunterstützte Untersuchungsmethode berichtet, bei
der nach einer bestimmten Konstellation von fünf Eiweissstoffen
gesucht wurde.
Dr.
Elise Kohn, Direktorin des National Cancer Instituts der US-
Food and Drug Administration führte mit ihren Mitarbeitern eine
Studie an 50 krebskranken Frauen und 66 Frauen ohne Eierstockkrebs
durch. Der Test war in der Lage 100% der bösartigen Eierstockkrebse
zu identifizieren. Darunter waren auch alle 18 Frauen, deren
Krebs sich im Frühstadium befand. Außerdem identifizierte der
Test 63 der 66 Frauen die keinen OvVerdana-Tumor hatten.
Damit wird der weg frei gemacht für weitere Studien an größeren
Patientenkollektiven. Verlaufen diese Studien erfolgreich, so
kann der Test in einigen Jahren bei Hochrisiko-Patientinnen zum
Einsatz kommen. Erweist er sich als zuverlässig, so steht der
breiten Anwendung - beispielsweise bei Krebs-Früherkennungsuntersuchungen
nichts mehr im Weg.
Blood
test may spot ovarian cancer, preliminary study suggests
Associated Press
By MALCOLM RITTER AP Science Writer
Thursday, February 7, 2002
NEW YORK (AP) - A simple blood test may be able to identify ovarian
cancer at its earliest stage, when it's hardest to spot but at
its most
curable, a preliminary study suggests.
Currently, around three-quarters of women with ovarian cancer
are diagnosed in advanced stages of the disease, when they have
only about a 20 percent chance of surviving five years. But if
the disease is caught early, the five-year survival is around
95 percent.
So providing a way to routinely identify the disease in its ``Stage
I'' phase ``could have a dramatic impact in what is now a very
deadly
cancer,'' said Dr. Elise Kohn, a study author.
Kohn is clinical director of a joint program of the National Cancer
Institute and the Food and Drug Administration that focuses on
proteomics, the study of the proteins inside cells. Scientists
from those two agencies and elsewhere present their results in
a report published online Friday by The Lancet.
They tried their test on blood samples from 50 women with ovarian
cancer and 66 women without the disease. The test correctly identified
all 50 samples from the cancer patients, including all 18 samples
from women with Stage I disease. And it recognized 63 of the 66
samples that were non-cancerous.
Dr. Lance Liotta of the National Cancer Institute, senior
investigator on the study, said the results are ``a first step.''
Now the test must be
studied with larger numbers of women and in different medical
centers ``to make sure it's as good as we hope it can be.''
The researchers said that if the test proves useful, it would
be applied initially in women considered at high risk because
of their genetic makeup or family history of the disease. Eventually,
it might be extended to other women as well, they said.
The experimental test measures the levels of five proteins found
in the blood. The combined result in a blood sample is used to
indicate the
presence of cancer, said Emanuel Petricoin of the FDA, lead author
on the paper.
Dr. Martee Hensley, an ovarian cancer expert at the Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, called the test innovative
and
potentially useful, but said it must be assessed in larger groups
of women.
``Right now, there's not a great way to find early stage ovarian
cancer,'' she said.
``We clearly need new technology,'' and the experimental test
might be ``at least two or three steps in the right direction,''
she said.
It could be useful in screening women at high risk of the disease
if a positive result is shown to reliably indicate ovarian cancer,
without too
many ``false positives'' that erroneously indicate cancer, she
said. That's because a false positive could lead to needless surgery.
The test would need further study in the general population to
assess its accuracy in that group, she said.
Link
zur Originalstudie in The Lancet
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