Women's Cancer Screening Panel

CA-125 (ovarian cancer), CA 15-3 (breast cancer monitoring), CA 19-9 (pancreatic + GI), CEA (colorectal + general), at-home FIT Test (colon), CBC (catches blood cancers), LDH. 6-7 tests covering the highest-incidence female cancers.

USPSTF specifically recommends AGAINST routine CA-125 in average-risk women — too many false positives. Most useful for women with known BRCA mutations or strong family history, monitoring known ovarian cancer, or evaluating a pelvic mass with imaging. See the CA-125 test page for details.

No. Mammogram remains the gold standard for breast cancer screening (CA 15-3 is for monitoring known disease, not screening). Pap smear / HPV testing remains the gold standard for cervical cancer screening (no blood test substitute exists). This panel adds tumor markers that complement, but don't replace, imaging and cytology screening.

On TestWell, the Women's Cancer Screening Panel is $299.99. Ordering the same tests separately would be about $400. Quest Health lists comparable bundles at $600, walk-in hospital labs typically bill $1500-2500 without insurance.

Most mildly elevated tumor markers in average-risk women are false positives — CA-125 can be elevated by endometriosis, fibroids, even menstruation. A single elevated result usually needs repeat at 4-6 weeks before any imaging workup. Don't panic at borderline results.

No fasting required for the blood components. Avoid testing during your menstrual period — menstruation can transiently elevate CA-125 and produce false positives. For FIT Test, no diet restrictions.

Annually for women 50+ or women with BRCA mutations / strong family history. Less frequently if all markers have been stable. Always pair with mammogram, Pap smear, and colonoscopy on age-appropriate schedule.

Some cancers leave measurable traces in blood, but no routine blood test detects cancer in general. Tumor markers such as CA-125 (ovarian), CA 15-3 and CA 27.29 (breast), CEA (colorectal and others) and CA 19-9 (pancreatic) are used mainly to monitor known cancers and treatment response; as screening tests they miss early disease and rise for benign reasons, so a normal result does not rule cancer out and an abnormal one does not diagnose it. A CBC and metabolic panel can show indirect clues — anemia, abnormal liver values — that prompt imaging. Screening that is proven to save lives (mammography, Pap/HPV, colonoscopy or FIT, low-dose CT for smokers) is imaging or tissue-based, not a blood draw.

Women with a personal or strong family history of ovarian or breast cancer who are working with a clinician and want a baseline, and women already diagnosed who are tracking markers between visits. It is not a substitute for age-appropriate screening, and an elevated marker should always be followed up with a clinician rather than acted on alone. Newer multi-cancer early-detection blood tests exist but are not part of this panel and are not yet recommended for routine screening.

Women's Cancer Screening Panel results are typically ready in 3–5 business days after your draw at Quest or Labcorp. TestWell emails you the moment they post, and your results dashboard shows each marker against its reference range with a plain-English explanation.

Peptides and GLP-1s, prednisone and other corticosteroids and exercise can change a Women's Cancer Screening Panel result without anything being wrong. Peptides and GLP-1s can lower Hemoglobin A1c and can raise BUN, IGF-1 and Insulin — expected treatment effect — A1c is the monitoring marker, not a reason to stop. Prednisone and other corticosteroids can raise Glucose and WBC and can lower Lymphocytes, hs-CRP and Potassium — expected on steroids; A1c over weeks reflects it. Exercise can raise ALT and Creatinine and 2 more markers on this test — rest 48 hours before a liver panel. Each is explained on our physician-reviewed "Before your test" pages; when one applies, remove it and retest.

Order the Women's Cancer Screening Panel online from TestWell for $299.99 (plus a $6 per-order lab processing fee) — no doctor's visit, referral or insurance needed. A licensed physician authorizes the order, then you walk into any Quest or Labcorp patient service center near you for the draw (the lab locator on our site lists the closest ones by ZIP code), and results arrive in 3–5 business days.