A recent alert issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns women and physicians that the current screening tests being used for ovarian cancer are not reliable and may, in fact, be very dangerous. The FDA is very concerned that false diagnosis from these unreliable tests could result in a deadly delay of treatment.
According to national statistics, more than 22,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year. It is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women. Ovarian cancer is also known as the silent killer due to the fact that there are usually no symptoms of the disease until it has progressed to an advanced stage, and even those early signs are often so mild that an ovarian cancer diagnosis can be overlooked.
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Some studies have suggested that women who are predisposed to the disease have a screening test to determine if there is an increase in the amount of the protein CA 125 in a woman’s blood. These studies concluded that the presence of ovarian cancer raises the level of this protein. The problem, according to the FDA’s warning, is that many other noncancerous conditions also raise those levels. Therefore, it is unfortunately too common that reliance on a CA 125 screening test for a diagnosis has often led to a missed diagnosis or a misdiagnosis.
In its alert, the FDA warns women that there are currently no effective or safe ovarian screening tests currently available and they should not rely on these tests to make any healthcare decisions. The agency also warns doctors to not use these screening tests to determine a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. The FDA also recommends that women at high risk for ovarian cancer should be referred to a genetic counselor or gynecologic oncologist.
Tragically, because of the difficulty in diagnosing ovarian cancer, in 75 percent of the women who are diagnosed, the disease has already spread to the woman’s abdomen area by the time she learns she has cancer. Most of those women die within five years of being diagnosed.
Over the past several decades, as the number of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer kept increasing, medical studies were done to find out why, and as early as the 1980s, researchers concluded that there was a high connection between the use of talcum powder and a woman’s risk of developing ovarian cancer. Despite knowing about that high risk, companies like Johnson & Johnson continued to market their Baby Powder and Shower to Shower Bath Powder, aimed specifically at women for feminine hygiene use without warning those women that using those products could end up being a death sentence.
Even today, and despite dozens of lawsuits filed against them and losing multi-million dollar jury verdicts, Johnson & Johnson still refuses to place warning labels on the very products that have been deemed responsible for the countless number of deaths of women who have died from ovarian cancer.
If you or a loved one was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after regularly using talcum powder products, contact a skilled Virginia talcum powder cancer lawsuit attorney immediately. Our team of experienced personal injury and wrongful death lawyers are investigating and accepting talc powder cancer cases. We may seek to include your case in a talc powder cancer class action, or we could represent you or a loved one individually. Due to the possible statute of limitations placed on filing a talcum powder cancer lawsuit, it is important to contact our office today.