The procedure, called FolateScan, is designed to determine if a mass or tumor in the pelvis or abdomen is cancerous or benign. Many cancerous tumors have an unusually large number of binding proteins or receptors for vitamins such as folic acid on their cell surfaces. Folic acid, a member of the vitamin B family, is critical to the process of cell division.
Folic acid is much more likely to bind to a cancer than to normal tissues or a benign tumor.
If the scan is positive, women with ovarian cancer could be better prepared for surgery, which would include determining the extent to which the cancer has developed and, if necessary, whether special techniques to remove the cancer completely are necessary. If successful, the detection procedure should be available for general use within two or three years. Principal investigator Gregory Sutton, MD, says the procedure holds great promise for detection and treatment of a disease that affects 23,100 women in this country each year. There are 14,000 deaths in the U.S. each year from ovarian cancer. If scanning proves successful, it may be possible to link radioactive or chemotherapeutic agents to folic acid in order to deliver these effective treatments directly to tumor cells.