LabCorp ends sale of cancer test

BURLINGTON, N.C - Laboratory Corporation of America has stopped selling an ovarian cancer screening test that hit the market without formal approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

LabCorp said in a letter filed with the Securities and Exchange Security Commission last month that it stopped offering OvaSure. The Burlington-based company said it wanted to maintain positive relations with regulatory agencies.

OvaSure is one of several efforts to develop tests that can reliably detect signs of ovarian cancer in blood months before a tumor becomes life-threatening.

LabCorp began marketing its screening test to high-risk women in June under a law that allows a single laboratory to offer testing without FDA review.