Karen Zempolich, left, will join national study next. They reported the findings in the Feb. 4 Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Ovarian cancer is much less common than other gynecological cancers, yet it remains very deadly, proving fatal for some 13,000 women each year.
Many women successfully battle the tumor initially, only to have the disease return.
Part of the problem is the lack of a sensitive test that will pick up the few rogue tumor cells that may remain after therapy. Though this procedure is considered the most sensitive available, it often fails to find residual disease. Nearly half of patients who show no sign of disease with the second look go on to develop subsequent tumors. In a 1997 paper, Dubeau and his colleagues suggested another way. They found ovarian cancer cells have unusually high levels of telomerase.