CA 125

[Guest guest]

I have not read all my mail, so perhaps someone else has already addressed this.

The letter from the woman talking about the CA-125 testing is not a fact based

letter. It says the CA-125 testing is all that needs to be done. That is not

true. It appears this letter has been around for a long time. Here is some

additional information about this test.

Roy

Partly in response to the email eRumor, a statement was issued by a medical

panel at a conference of the National Institutes of Health in April of 1994 that

said the CA-125 test " ...alone is not an adequate screening test. "

The Louis Busch Hagar Cancer Center of Bassett Healthcare in stown, New

York, says that more than 50 percent of the women with ovarian cancer will not

show results on a CA-125 test and a statement by the center calls the test a

" disappointment. "

It is regarded as a valuable tool, however, when sometimes combined with other

tests or in targeted groups of women, such as those who have already gone

through menopause. Also, a study in the February 16, 1999 issue of the ls

of Internal Medicine and cited by the American Cancer Society found that the

CA-125 test was a valuable in tracking the progress of one of the most common

forms of ovarian cancer, but that was after the cancer had already been found

and was being treated. The same article says the CA-125 test does not meet the

standards of a screening test.

According to the American Cancer Society, ovarian cancer is the fifth most

common cancer and fifth most common cause of cancer death among women and

accounts for four percent of all cancers in women and causes more deaths than

any other cancer of the female reproductive system.

There is no question that early detection should be every woman's goal and that

she should work with her physician to that end.