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CA125 (cancer antigen 125 or carbohydrate antigen 125 also known as mucin 16) is best known as a blood-borne biomarker for ovarian cancer. However, CA125 may also be elevated in other cancers, including those originating in the endometrium, fallopian tubes, lungs, breast and gastrointestinal tract. CA-125 can also become elevated with endometriosis, several diseases of the ovary, and pregnancy.

CA-125 is not perfectly specific or perfectly sensitive for ovarian cancer since not every patient with this form of cancer will have an elevated level in the blood. In fact, 79% of all ovarian cancers are positive for CA-125, while the remainder do not express the antigen.

Chemotherapy is a scary word. It is the use of anti-cancer (cytotoxic) drugs to destroy cancer cells and is a general term for many different kinds of treatment and drugs. There are more than 50 different chemotherapy drugs. In principle, it means not treating by surgery and radiotherapy, but by giving drugs that affect the entire body equally. The drugs go into the bloodstream and travel throughout the body to treat the cancer cells wherever they are. It can be given either as a tablet, or as an injection or infusion directly into a vein. Chemotherapy can cause side effects. The side effects will depend on which drug (or combination of drugs) is used. There are now very good ways of preventing or reducing the side effects of chemotherapy. 

Race and ethnicity is a complex issue for cancer. Partly there is an impact, which is truly about ethnic origins. The first breast cancer gene to be discovered is called BRCA1 and inherited mutations in BRCA1 increase the risk of various cancers including: breast, ovarian, uterus, cervix, pancreatic, and maybe prostate cancer. About 1.5 percent of the Ashkenazi (European origin) Jewish population carries an inherited mutation in the BRCA1 gene. While this increased risk could be due to a variety of factors such as diet and cigarette smoking, a growing body of evidence suggests that a significant portion of the increased risk of cancer in individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish descent has a genetic basis. In developed societies ethnicity tends to be a surrogate for economic activity and access the treatments. So, when the issue of ethnicity is raised in North America it is very different to when it is raised in, say, Israel. Breast cancer for Afro-Americans is tends to be more associated with socio-economic issues than it does ethnicity. 

Most cancers start in one place. A primary cancer is named for the site where it was originally discovered. For example, a primary ovarian cancer is a cancer located in the ovaries.  A secondary cancer is a primary cancer that has spread, or metastasized, to another organ.  So, if you have ovarian cancer that has spread to the liver, you have primary ovarian cancer with secondary, or metastatic, ovarian cancer in the liver.