Polar Bear Medical Blog

A recent study has led to the findings that ultrasounds are superior to symptoms at predicting ovarian cancer. This finding was published in the July 13th online issue of Cancer. However, while ultrasounds are better at predicting ovarian cancer, symptom analysis is better at distinguishing benign tumors.

Dr. Edward J. Pavlik, from the University of Kentucky, Lexington, and colleagues note. Exactly how symptom analysis stacks up against TVS was unclear. “Although ovarian cancer has been perceived as a ’silent killer’ that produces few specific symptoms, recent studies have indicated that certain symptoms are significantly more common in women with ovarian cancer than in women in the general population.”

The most interesting finding however, may be that although the ability to distinguish benign tumors is enhanced when both transvaginal sonography (TVS) and symptom analysis are combined, the detection of malignancy is actually worse.

The study analyzed 272 women to assess the performance of TVS and symptom analysis in the prediction of ovarian cancer. In the detection of ovarian cancer, TVS had a significantly greater sensitivity than symptom analysis, at 73.3% vs. 20%. However, in distinguishing benign tumors, the specificity of symptom analysis was greater than TVS at 91.3% vs. 74.4%.

The most remarkable statistic is how much the detection of ovarian cancer fell when both TVS and symptom analysis were combined; the detection fell to 16.7%. Yet, the specificity in distinguishing benign tumors rose a great deal to 97.9%!

This study could be the first step in discovering new, and more accurate ways to detect ovarian cancer earlier, and then possibly being able to treat it.

“Until an effective screening test for ovarian cancer is found, the clinical challenge remains how to discriminate between significant and common symptoms to best care for patients,” Dr. Ilana Cass, from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, comments in an accompanying editorial. “Given the vague nature of these symptoms that lack an exact threshold for further costly evaluation, this is no small task.”

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Well if you are like most people and you do not particularly enjoy being sick then continue reading. However, if you do enjoy being sick, then I would suggest some immediate psychiatric help. Anyway, for the normal person there are ways to better your chances at fighting off the flu.

1.The first step is to optimize your vitamin D levels. Vitamin D will help you fight off almost all infections and a lack of vitamin D is often the real cause behind the seasonality of the flu. Maintaining a good level of vitamin D all year will help you stay flu free.
2.Avoid sugar and processed foods. Although sugar is sweet and tasty, it doesn’t help very much with defending your body against the flu. It’s like that creepy guy your mom told you to stay away from because he drives around in an ice-cream truck that has no ice-cream in it. Though it is very hard not to have sugary foods, sugar actually decreases the function of your immune system almost as your drinking it. Obviously your immune system is important for fighting off the flu so try not to have too much.
3.Get enough rest. When your body is tired it is harder to fight the flu, it’s as simple as that.
4.Have effective tools to address stress. Stress is well, stressful. Stress is not good for your body and can lead to some serious medical problems. Also if you are too stressed out you are more susceptible to the flu and less capable of being able to fight it.
5.Exercise. When you exercise the circulation throughout the body increases. Therefore, the different parts of your immune system are also better circulated and that means there is a greater chance that you immune system can find and destroy an illness before it really spreads.
6.Wash your hands. Because there is bacteria basically everywhere, washing your hands quite frequently will help you prevent illness. And although most people think antibacterial soap is a good alternative to soap, it actually does much more harm than good. Don’t settle for antibacterial soap, get the real thing and make sure you wash for long enough.

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