Ovarian cancer is also referred to as a silent killer because it's so frequently detected only in its advanced stages, when the chance of surviving for five years is less than 30 percent. One common biological marker for the cancer, CA 125, is imperfect, since it is present in many women who don't have cancer and isn't present in many who do. So scientists are looking for a more specific marker that would suggest the presence of ovarian cancer before it had advanced to a more deadly stage. Researchers at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute and colleagues elsewhere wanted to know if a class of molecules called lysophospholipids (LPLs), especially one called lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), might signal the presence of ovarian cancer.

What the researchers wanted to know: Are LPA and other LPLs good markers of ovarian cancer?

What they did: Researchers collected plasma samples from two groups of women: 117 who were known to have ovarian cancer and 27 healthy, cancer-free women. Then they searched the samples for LPLs without knowing whether the plasma they were examining came from a healthy or an ill woman.

What they found: "This study reports statistically significant differences in LPL levels between preoperative samples of ovarian cancer patients and those of healthy controls," the author wrote. LPA was particularly closely associated with cancer. Overall, the test accurately predicted whether the woman had cancer 93 percent of the time.

What it means to you: It raises the possibility that a blood test for ovarian cancer might someday be available, though this is only the first step toward such a test. Before it's used as a screening tool among a large population, the accuracy would have to improve even more.

Caveats: This was a pretty small study sample, which means it can't be extrapolated to the greater population. Moreover, two previous studies weren't uniform; one agreed with these recent findings and another did not. Larger studies are necessary.

Find out more: The National Ovarian Cancer Coalition: www.ovarian.org

Read the article: Sutphen, R. et al. "Lysophospholipids Are Potential Biomarkers of Ovarian Cancer." Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. July 7, 2004, Vol. 13, No. 7, pp. 1185–1191.

Abstract online: http://cebp.aacrjournals.org