Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 May:65:32-45.
doi: 10.1016/j.bpobgyn.2020.02.010. Epub 2020 Mar 3.

Ovarian cancer screening: Current status and future directions

Zachary Nash  1 , Usha Menon  2
Affiliations
Review

Ovarian cancer screening: Current status and future directions

Zachary Nash et al. Best Pract Res Clin Obstet Gynaecol. 2020 May.

Abstract

Ovarian cancer is the third most common gynaecological malignancy and the most lethal worldwide. Most patients are diagnosed with advanced disease which carries significant mortality. Improvements in treatment have only resulted in modest increases in survival. This has driven efforts to reduce mortality through screening. Multimodal ovarian cancer screening using a longitudinal CA125 algorithm has resulted in diagnosis at an earlier stage, both in average and high risk women in two large UK trials. However, no randomised controlled trial has demonstrated a definitive mortality benefit. Extended follow up is underway in the largest trial to date, UKCTOCS, to explore the delayed reduction in mortality that was noted. Meanwhile, screening is not currently recommended in the general population Some countries offer surveillance of high risk women. Novel screening modalities and longitudinal biomarker algorithms offer potential improvements to future screening strategies as does the development of better risk stratification tools.

Keywords: Early detection; Ovarian cancer; Screening.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest ZN reports no conflicts of interest. UM has stock ownership awarded by UCL in Abcodia Ltd, which is a UCL spinout company with an interest in biomarkers for early detection of cancer and has the commercial rights to the Risk of Ovarian Cancer Algorithm used in ovarian cancer screening.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles