Vermillion ovarian cancer test shows positive result

Reuters – 2 hrs 55 mins ago (Reuters) - Diagnostics company Vermillion Inc said a clinical trial of its blood test for detecting ovarian cancer showed the test had a high chance of correctly identifying patients with cancer.

Shares of the company jumped 21 percent to $2.17 on the news.

The study, named OVA1, is a blood test for pre-surgical assessment of ovarian tumors for malignancy.

The study focused on two particularly challenging subgroups - women with early-stage ovarian cancer and pre-menopausal women.

"A key goal of the study was to investigate the challenging pre-menopausal setting, where benign cysts have a high incidence and early-stage cancer often goes undetected," Chief Executive Gail Page said.

The test had a 94 percent sensitivity in the pre-menopausal group, and a 91 percent sensitivity in the early-stage ovarian cancer group.

A diagnostic test's sensitivity refers to its ability to correctly identify those who are actually affected by the disease.

Overall, the test showed a 96 percent sensitivity.

OVA1 also had a low chance of mistakenly classifying a sick person as healthy.

Vermillion shares were up 11 percent at $2 in morning trade on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Esha Dey in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)

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Excess maternal weight before and during pregnancy can result in larger babies

ScienceDaily (May 22, 2012) — Excess weight in pregnant women, both before pregnancy and gained during pregnancy, is the main predictor of whether mothers will have larger than average babies, which can result in increased risk of cesarean section or trauma during delivery, states a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

See Also:Health & MedicinePregnancy and ChildbirthDiet and Weight LossInfant's HealthDiabetesFitnessGynecologyReferenceBirth weightBlood sugarDiabetic dietStillbirth

Women with diabetes in pregnancy or gestational diabetes are at increased risk of having a large-for-gestational-age baby. Called macrosomia, it is defined as an infant whose weight is above the 90th percentile of Canadian fetal growth curves, or more than 4 kg. Current clinical practice focuses on managing glucose levels in women with these conditions to reduce the risk of having larger babies. Recent studies have shown a link between maternal glucose levels in women without gestational diabetes and the risk of having a larger baby.

Proposed new criteria suggest lowering the glucose levels for diagnosing gestational diabetes to help identify women who might be at risk of having a large-for-gestational-age baby.

To determine the effects of a variety of maternal factors such as obesity, glucose levels and lipid levels on infant birth weight, researchers from Mount Sinai Hospital, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), University of Toronto, and St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, conducted a study with 472 women -- 368 with normal glucose tolerance and 104 with impaired glucose tolerance.

They found that excess weight before pregnancy and the amount of weight gain during pregnancy were the strongest metabolic predictors of whether a woman would have a large-for-gestational-age baby. Elevated glucose levels had a relatively modest impact as did lipid levels.

"Gestational impaired glucose tolerance was not a significant independent predictor of having a large-for-gestational-age infant," writes Dr. Ravi Retnakaran, Mount Sinai Hospital, with coauthors. "Similarly, none of the lipid measures was independently associated with birth weight or large-for-gestational-age infant. These data suggest that maternal weight and its associated circulating factors have a greater impact on infant birth weight than do mild glucose intolerance and lipid levels in women without gestational diabetes."

"In the context of the current obesity epidemic, these data support the importance of targeting healthy body weight in young women as a strategy for reducing the risk of excessive fetal growth and infant macrosomia," conclude the authors. "Furthermore, these findings suggest that, in the care of overweight or obese women in pregnancy, closer monitoring of weight gain during pregnancy may be warranted."

In a related commentary, Dr. Edmond Ryan, University of Alberta, writes, "Recently proposed criteria

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