Ca 125 Testing: The Whole Truth
The newest advancement in ovarian cancer detection is an yearly CA 125 blood test to help screen against ovarian cancer. Many have dismissed this new test as being a false advertisement and not worth checking out or talking to their over with their doctor. However, this isn’t the case.
The CA 125 test is a blood test that can help to determine the amount of antigen in the blood that is a tumor marker. The test is usually used to monitor the state of cancer in those who already have ovarian cancer. Most of the women with ovarian cancer will have signs of the antigen in their blood.
The reason why the test isn’t more common as a screening tool is because it’s not as sensitive or specific as doctors would prefer. False positive and false negative results can occur with this test and at high rates which is why doctors won’t use it as a general screening test like they do with pelvic exams.
False positives can result since there are several common conditions in the body that will lead to an elevation of CA 125 in the blood stream. Some of these conditions are normal ovulation, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, the first trimester of pregnancy and fibroid tumors.
False negatives are another problem since the test does have a high rate of negative results. This means a woman can test negative and still have ovarian cancer. This is most likely to happen if a woman is in the early stages of ovarian cancer.
However, if women are at a high risk for ovarian cancer then their doctor may do regular CA 125 screening tests. Most of the time if you have a family history of ovarian cancer and you are younger than fifty then a CA 125 test may be annually prescribed by your doctor.
Jeanette Pollock is a freelance author and website owner of ovariancancerdomain.com. Visit Jeanette’s site to learn more about ca 125 testing.
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