Recently, a letter was sent out on local listserves about the CA-125 blood test that screens for ovarian cancer. Carolyn Benivegna, the author of the letter, stated that if she had recieved the CA-125 blood test as part of her annual exam, her doctors might have diagnosed her ovarian cancer earlier. She urged other women to insist that their doctors perform this test every year.

Unfortunately, insisting that your doctor give you the CA-125 blood test may not be a good idea. While having this test might help a few people diagnose their cancer sooner, information from credible sources indicates that CA-125 also results in more women undergoing major abdominal surgeries due to false positives. When CA-125 tests come back positive, doctors often have to do exploratory surgery to confirm the presence of cancer. As these sources report, with a high rate of false positives for the CA-125 test, regular screening of women would unfortunately result in more unneccessary surgeries.

For this reason, while some might advocate women receiving this test if they are at high risk for ovarian cancer, or are showing symptoms, we found few credible sources advocating it for everyone, across the board.  This reccommendation is agreed upon by most national cancer organizations. In fact, the woman who actually wrote the letter also wrote a revision in which she agrees that not all women should get this test. (The link to the revision can also be found below.)

If you have an elevated CA-125 result, this does not mean that you have ovarian cancer. As stated on the Wikipedia website, “CA125 may also be elevated in a number of relatively benign conditions, such as endometriosis, several diseases of the ovary, and pregnancy. It also tends to be elevated in the presence of any inflammatory condition in the abdominal area, both cancerous and benign." However, you should not hesitate to have the results of this test and any other related symptoms checked by a qualified doctor.

For more information on ovarian cancer or the CA-125 blood test, visit the websites listed below. You can also Contact the CRCMC by phone or email, Monday through Thursday, 9am - 4pm.

More links on this topic:

National Ovarian Cancer Coalition
www.ovarian.org/

American Cancer Society: Ovarian Cancer Screening Article
www.cancer.org/docroot/nws/content/nws_3_1x_ovarian_cancer_screening.asp

Johns Hopkins: Q & A about CA-125:
http://ovariancancer.jhmi.edu/ca125qa.cfm

The original letter on the "Snopes" website:
www.snopes.com/medical/disease/ca125.asp

The revised letter:
www.baymoon.com/~gyncancer/library/blcarolyn2.htm

Wikipedia article explaining CA-125:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CA-125