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Reading an article about a new ovarian cancer test in the New York Times, it gave me hope that this new blood test could help detect ovarian cancer early, and give lots of hope to many women around the world.

According to the National Cancer Institute, they estimate to have 21,650 new cases of ovarian cancer, and 15,520 deaths from ovarian cancer in 2008. Currently, only 20 percent of ovarian cancer is detected early, and increasing the early detection could improve the lifespan of ovarian cancer survivors. In its latest stages, after spreading, only roughly 30 percent of the women survive five years.

OvaSure, which was developed at Yale, and offered by LabCorp since late June, is still under scrutiny by the FDA and other medical experts.

Dr. Andrew Berchuck, director of gynecologic oncology at Duke University and the immediate past president of the American Cancer Society, said: “You’ve got industry trying to capitalize on fear. We’d all love to see a screening test for ovarian cancer, but OvaSure is very premature.” Though it may be premature, I see a ray of hope for many women and their doctors.

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