Affiliation of authors: N. Pisal, M. Sindos, A. Singer, Department of Women's Health, The Whittington Hospital, London, U.K.
Correspondence to: Narendra Pisal, M.D., M.R.C.O.G., Department of Women's Health, The Whittington Hospital, London N19 5NF, UK (e-mail: pisal{at}dr.com).
We read with interest the article by Chang et al. (1). This article assesses the feasibility of using a novel molecular technique for the early detection of ovarian cancer. The article suggests a very high sensitivity and specificity, making it a very suitable technique as a screening test.
We would like to make the following comments:
Chang et al. have correctly pointed out problems regarding the cost and complexity of this technique. However, we agree that this technique is an exciting development and needs further evaluation.
REFERENCES
1 Chang HW, Lee SM, Goodman SN, Singer G, Cho SK, Sokoll LJ, et al. Assessment of plasma DNA levels, allelic imbalance, and CA 125 as diagnostic tests for cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 2002;94:1697703.
2 Pieretti M, Hopenhayn-Rich C, Khattar NH, Cao Y, Huang B, Tucker TC. Heterogeneity of ovarian cancer: relationships among histological group, stage of disease, tumor markers, patient characteristics, and survival. Cancer Invest 2002;20:1123.[CrossRef][Medline]
3 Pribill I, Speiser P, Leary J, Leodolter S, Hacker NF, Friedlander ML, et al. High frequency of allelic imbalance at regions of chromosome arm 8p in ovarian carcinoma. Cancer Genet Cytogenet 2001;129:239.[Medline]
4 Bischoff FZ, Heard M, Simpson JL. Somatic DNA alterations in endometriosis: high frequency of chromosome 17 and p53 loss in late-stage endometriosis. J Reprod Immunol 2002;55:4964.[CrossRef][Medline]
5 Goumenou AG, Arvanitis DA, Matalliotakis IM, Koumantakis EE, Spandidos DA. Microsatellite DNA assays reveal an allelic imbalance in p16(Ink4), GALT, p53, and APOA2 loci in patients with endometriosis. Fertil Steril 2001;75:1605.[CrossRef][Medline]
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