GS: "It is just not possible that a marker like CEA or CA125 if used in general screening and will indicate positive for conditions other than Colon or ovarian cancer respectively, would somehow become a very selective marker for general screening by combining it with a marker that has no selectiviy at all and end up with a test that has ZERO false positives. That is just not possible."
This is incorrect. If CA-125 correctly reacts to ovarian cancer, but incorrectly reacts to a bunch of other conditions X not associated with ovarian cancer, and RECAF correctly reacts to ovarian cancer, but incorrectly reacts to a bunch of other conditions Y not associated with ovarian cancer then, if X and Y do not overlap, combining the tests can produce an accurate marker. Effectively, they make up for each others' weaknesses.
This is the basis for combining multiple proteomic and genomic markers, which you have advocated on many occasions.
IMO, the latest news is not at all trivial, or implied by previous news releases. Pending the actual details, it is a very nice step forward. It confirms that RECAF can complement other markers such as CA-125.
This has got to be potentially a great thing for people with ovarian cancer. Because there tend to be no early signs of ovarian cancer, it tends to be detected later and so survival rates are lower. Early detection would improve things greatly.
I would think the low cost of RECAF plus the high detection rate with no false positives (pending larger scale clinical confirmation) would make it a good candidiate for screening in at-risk groups.
QB
