Rush researchers discover antibody that may help detect ovarian cancer in earliest stages - press release (mesothelin antibodies)

Note: in research

".....In the study at Rush, researchers tested for mesothelin antibodies in the bloodstream of 109 women who were infertile, 28 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer, 24 women with benign ovarian tumors or cysts, and 152 healthy women. Infertility was due to endometriosis, ovulatory dysfunction or premature ovarian failure or was unexplained.
Significant levels of mesothelin antibodies were found in women with premature ovarian failure, ovulatory dysfunction and unexplained infertility, as well as in women with ovarian cancer, although not in women with endometriosis and not in healthy women or women with benign disease. Endometriosis is generally associated with a different kind of ovarian carcinoma (blogger's note - cell types: endometrioid/clear cell)  than other types of infertility, which may explain why mesothelin antibodies were not found in these cases.
Why the presence of mesothelin antibodies in the bloodstream should be linked with ovarian cancer is not clear.
"It has been hypothesized that an autoimmune response precedes or somehow contributes to the development and progression of malignant tumors," Luborsky said. "We think that antibodies may arise in response to very early abnormal changes in ovarian tissue that may or may not progress to malignancy, depending on additional triggering events. Or, alternatively, antibodies may bind to normal cells in the ovary, causing dysfunction and leading to infertility -- and, in a subpopulation of women, to the development of ovarian cancer.".....cont'd