Blood Test Misses Ovarian Cancer in Minority Groups 

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United States: Blood tests for ovarian cancer diagnosis tend to fail at detecting the disease in Black and Native American patients, delaying their access to treatment according to recent scientific research. Health care disparities receive another witness from a modern medical screening test, as reported by Yahoo. 

Racial Disparities in Cancer Diagnosis Delay Treatment 

Scientific teams have established efforts to identify latent biases which appear within medical practices. The Trump administration’s campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives places such research activities at risk because universities adjust their practices under political duress while federal agencies conduct extensive grant evaluations for Davies of presidential policies. 

Native American women experience the most common occurrence of ovarian cancer diagnosis. Women with black heritage who have ovarian cancer demonstrate lower survival rates in comparison to white women with the same condition. Early detection of ovarian cancer improves an individual’s likelihood of survival. 

Study Reveals Gaps in Early Detection 

The latest published research in JAMA Network Open received financial backing through grants from the National Cancer Institute to examine the CA-125 blood test. The blood-based tumor marker test reveals results doctors utilize to decide whether women with questionable lumps should meet with a cancer specialist. 

Doctors Warns About CA-125 

Early evaluations heavily rely on testing results as doctors need to comprehend their meaning for patients from different racial and ethnic groups stated Dr. Shannon Westin from MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. 

“This is a perfect example of work that absolutely needed to be stratified based on race and ethnicity,” Westin said. The findings alert doctors that they shouldn’t be totally reassured by a normal test result, she said. 

Genetic Variations May Affect Test Results 

Researchers have not yet discovered the reason why the test results differ among various demographic groups. The researchers believe this result is connected to a safe genetic variation which occurs frequently among African and Caribbean and Middle Eastern and West Indian populations. 

Research articles from the 1980s about the test failed to document patient races, though the testing samples included mostly white participants. 

The test produces imperfect results even for white women, according to Dr. Anna Jo Smith, who leads the University of Pennsylvania medical school team. 

“But if we have worse performance in certain groups, then we may be further contributing to disparities in referral, disparities in treatment, and ultimately we may be contributing to the lower survival in Black women with ovarian cancer,” Smith said. 

More than 200,000 ovarian cancer patients were studied based on their CA-125 blood test results from 2004 to 2020. 

The likelihood of Black and Native American patients showing increased CA-125 levels during their ovarian cancer diagnosis was 23% lower than that of white patients, thus indicating current threshold values are too high for detection. 

Delayed Treatment Could Impact Survival 

Researchers established that patients obtaining wrong negative test results started chemotherapy nine days after patients who showed increased levels. According to Smith, the different start dates might be significant for some patients under observation. 

A new lower CA-125 blood test threshold was recently introduced by Smith and her colleagues during their Society of Gynecologic Oncology presentation to improve testing accuracy among different patient groups. The proposed research evidence has the potential to modify future clinical practice recommendations, as reported by Yahoo. 

“New thresholds for referral will ensure that all patients get in for rapid care when ovarian cancer is suspected,” Smith said.