Daily Mail - 23.08.2019

Daily Mail, Friday, August 23, 2019 Page 25

Blood test that spots

ovarian cancer 2 years

before symptoms show

A WOMAN with incurable ovarian

cancer says she was misdiagnosed

with a urinary infection and irrita-

ble bladder syndrome because

doctors thought she was too young

to be suffering from the cancer.

Heidi Crawford, 42, a riding instruc-

tor, repeatedly went to her GP with

classic symptoms of ovarian cancer,

including abdominal pains, feeling

full when eating and bloating.

But Ms Crawford, then 39, says she

was misdiagnosed before she finally

found a lump and was sent for an

ultrasound test. She was diagnosed

with stage 3B ovarian cancer six

months after her first GP visit.

Medics say her cancer is incurable

and she faces an uncertain future.

Only 20 per cent with stage 3B ovar-

ian cancer live beyond five years.

Yesterday Ms Crawford, from

Wigan, said: ‘The doctor just

assumed I was too young to get

ovarian cancer. I think that’s why

they never thought to screen me.’

I was misdiagnosed at 39

Pains: Heidi Crawford

By Victoria Allen

Science Correspondent

Qantas trials

19-hour flight

from London

to Sydney

QANTAS is closer to the ‘final

frontier of aviation’ with plans

to fly the 10,500 miles between

London and Sydney non-stop.

Passengers and pilots on the

19-hour test flights between

London and New York and Aus-

tralia’s East Coast will have

checks to see how they would

cope with the world’s longest

commercial flights.

The Australian flag carrier

launched a 17-hour service

between London and Perth on

the West Coast last year. But it

By James Salmon

Transport Editor

‘The key is to

minimise jet lag’

said test flights to Sydney will

take place as part of what it

calls ‘Project Sunrise’.

Three Boeing 787-9s flights

will take off from October, with

40 passengers and crew.

Those on board – mainly staff

• will have health checks with
  sleep patterns and eating
  checks. Scientists will record
  pilots’ melatonin levels before,
  during and after.
  Melatonin is a natural hor-
  mone that regulates the sleep
  cycle. Pilots will also have their
  brainwave patterns and alert-
  ness monitored.
  Qantas boss Alan Joyce said:
  ‘Non-stop from the East Coast
  to London and New York is the
  final frontier in aviation, so
  we’re doing all the groundwork
  to get this right. For customers,
  the key is minimising jet lag.’

49 were later diagnosed with epi-

thelial ovarian cancer.

A year ahead of their diagnosis,

the test was able to identify 68 per

cent of those who would develop

aggressive ovarian cancer and 53

per cent of those who would get a

more slow-growing cancer.

Two years before the women

were diagnosed, scientists

detected 28 per cent of those who

would get aggressive cancer and

20 per cent of those set to get the

less aggressive kind.

A test that is able to detect ovar-

ian cancer one or two years earlier

could mean the difference between

life and death because by the time

most women visit the doctor with

confusing symptoms such as

bloating and stomach pain, the

cancer has already spread.

If it is diagnosed at the earliest

stage, 92 per cent of women with

ovarian cancer survive five years

or more, but among those diag-

nosed with the most advanced

cancer, this falls to 12 per cent.

Two-thirds of women with ovar-

ian cancer are diagnosed once the

disease has already spread. Study

leader Dr Robert Graham, from

Queen’s University Belfast, said:

‘Most ovarian cancer cases are

caught at a late stage, so we hope

to have developed a test which

could detect ovarian cancer earlier.

We hope, with further research, we

can build the case to push experts

towards a national screening pro-

gramme for ovarian cancer.’

If a GP suspects ovarian cancer,

an abdominal examination can be

followed by a blood test for a pro-

tein called CA125, which may then

lead to an ultrasound scan.

But the researchers, whose study

is published in the British Journal

of Cancer, say the three newly

discovered proteins, taken

together, could improve the effec-

tiveness of the test, because

CA125 is also raised in other con-

ditions such as endometriosis.

They now want to try their test

on a larger group of women and all

types of ovarian cancer.

Annwen Jones, chief executive of

the charity Target Ovarian Can-

cer, said: ‘Progress is desperately

needed in detecting ovarian can-

cer earlier. These are very promis-

ing early results, but the number

of women involved is too small.’

‘Out of 50 people,

not one moved’

THIS is the moment a young

mother was forced to breastfeed

her son sitting on a ‘filthy’ train

floor because passengers would

not give up their seats.

Sophie Molineux, 22, was pho-

tographed by her partner as she

fed their one-year-old son Ches-

ter hemmed in between the train

door and her pushchair.

She and Rob Moore, 25, a chef,

had to stand for their half-hour

trip and were astonished when

none of their ‘inconsiderate’ fel-

low travellers offered a seat.

They took turns to hold Ches-

ter and, when he became hungry,

Miss Molineux said she had no

‘We didn’t ask anyone to give up

their seat. We thought we’d just

stand and hope for the best but

no one got up,’ said Miss

Molineux, who has a part-time

job as a restaurant manager. ‘I

don’t know how these people

could see what was going on and

pretend it wasn’t happening.’

Miss Molineux said she was

speaking out in the hope other

fit and healthy passengers would

be less selfish in future. ‘It should

be common sense to give up your

seat for a child,’ she said.

By Richard Marsden

Astonished: Mother and baby

Hemmed in:

Sophie Molineux

feeds Chester on

the train floor

choice but to sit on the floor. ‘I

was so shocked,’ she said. ‘There

were around 50 people in the car-

riage and not one moved, even

those in the priority seats meant

for passengers who need to sit.’

Some even went to the toilet

and back giving her ‘blank

expressions so they didn’t have

to give up their seat’.

She added: ‘I’d rather not sit

on the dirty floor of a moving

train breastfeeding but I didn’t

really have much choice.’

The incident came as the fam-

ily travelled from their home in

Shrewsbury to Ludlow, Shrop-

shire, for a day out on Tuesday.

As neither drive, they went by

train and boarded the carriage

near the priority seating area.

A NEW blood test could detect

ovarian cancer two years before

women are currently diagnosed.

It could save thousands of lives, and

will strengthen calls for women to be

invited for screening for ovarian can-

cer as well as for breast cancer.

The blood test looks for four proteins

released into the bloodstream by the

most common type of ovarian cancer.

Epithelial ovarian cancer, which forms

in the tissue covering the ovary, is diag-

nosed in more than 7,000 women a year in

the UK and kills over 4,000.

British scientists carried out a trial of the

‘Save thousands

of lives’

test using 80 initially healthy women

from a previous study, whose blood

was taken every year, and of whom

FIRST CLASS RUDENESS

Breastfeeding mum’s fury

at passengers who made

her sit on filthy train floor