By Sola Ogundipe
Researchers may be closer than ever to detecting ovarian cancer earlier and improving the odds for women with this life-threatening disease.
In a new study, scientists used stem cells created from the blood samples of women with BRCA mutations and the cancer to fashion a model of fallopian tube tissue.
There, they found first hints of cancer in the fallopian tube tissue. Called organoids, these tissues one day might help doctors predict years in advance which women will develop ovarian cancer, the researchers believe.
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This cancer is the leading cause of gynecologic cancer deaths in part because its symptoms are typically subtle and most tumors are missed until they have spread beyond the ovaries.
They created fallopian organoids using cells from women with BRCA-1 mutations who had the cancer.
The data supports recent research indicating that ovarian cancer in these patients actually begins with cancerous lesions in the fallopian tube linings.
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