Regarding the use of CA-125, it should be strongly emphasized that this “marker” measures inflammation, not cancer per se. There is no specific blood test for ovarian cancer like the PSA test for prostate cancer. This is important because students need to understand that many lives could be saved (perhaps 15,000/year) if there were a way to screen women for ovarian cancer. This would mean diagnosis at stages I or II when the cure rates are much higher than for stages III or IV when cure rates are dismal. Students could be asked to look up survival for these stages.
Students should be asked to explain why we don’t have a specific test. Are there biological reasons? There are also political/economic questions that students should consider since they may well affect their lives. What issues are involved with insurance companies having to pay for screening mammograms? What is the reason for the new idea that the PSA need not be done on
men over the age of 70? Why is the CA-125 not used for screening, even if there are some false positives? -
Why do we use the term “remission”? Who invented that word? Was it oncologists? Certainly they use it and so does every one else! What does it mean? To me it means that there’s no sign of that cancer, BUT we’re waiting for it to return, for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. If a person has a heart attack or a stroke, and they’ve recovered, there’s a reasonable probability of a repeat. Have students look these numbers up. BUT we don’t say that these patients are “in remission.”
How does the term “remission” affect the patient? Does it instill a bit of unnecessary fear? (The doctor must think it’s coming back!) Does this term remove hope that the patient might be cured?
Comments submitted 08/21/2008 by:
Victoria Finnerty, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
O. Wayne Rollins Research Center
Emory University
Atlanta , GA 30322
victoria.finnerty@emory.edu
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