A new finding challenges what has been considered common wisdom among doctors: The earlier you treat cancer, the better. Researchers found no increase in the survival rate of patients whose relapsed ovarian cancer was found by screening tests before symptoms developed, and whose chemotherapy was started early, over that of patients whose cancer was found later when symptoms developed. "The absolute benefit of that close surveillance has not been tested before, which is why this is a landmark paper," said Dr. Bradley Monk, a gynecologic oncologist at Creighton University School of Medicine in Arizona, who was not affiliated with the study. Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths in women in the United States. Up to 90 percent of women with ovarian cancer will relapse, according to Johns Hopkins University. Ovarian cancer relapse can be found early by monitoring blood levels of a protein called CA125, produced by ovarian cancer cells. CA125 levels may … [Read more...] about Starting Chemo Early Doesn’t Always Help