British researchers are close to developing an effective screening test for ovarian cancer, it was announced today.
The new test uses sophisticated analytical methods to improve an existing test.
This has doubled its effectiveness – making the test able to detect 86% of women affected by the disease in a trial, according to the researchers at University College, London.
The figures have emerged from a study of ovarian cancer screening involving more than 200,000 women and backed by the UK’s Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK.
The new technique involves a test for the protein CA125. Existing techniques measure fixed levels of the protein and have been able to identify fewer than 50% of cases.
But a new test was developed to measure changes in levels of the protein.
Researcher Professor Usha Menon said the results were “very encouraging.”
She said: “There is currently no national screening programme for ovarian cancer, as research to date has been unable to provide enough evidence that any one method would improve early detection of tumours.
“The numbers of unnecessary operations and complications were within acceptable limits and we were able to safely and effectively deliver screening for over a decade across 13 NHS Trusts.
“While this is a significant achievement, we need to wait until later this year when the final analysis of the trial is completed to know whether the cancers detected through screening were caught early enough to save lives.”
Dr James Brenton, ovarian cancer specialist at Cancer Research UK, said: “A blood test to find women at risk of ovarian cancer is an exciting prospect, but this work still needs to be tested in women to see if it can save lives. By tracking how the levels of the CA125 protein change over time we might have an early signal to detect tumours.
“Ovarian cancer is particularly hard to spot at an early stage so it’s vital that we find ways to diagnose the cancer sooner.”
Menon et al.,A risk algorithm using serial biomarker measurements doubles the number of screen-detected cancers compared to a single threshold rule in the United Kingdom Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS).Journal of Clinical Oncology In press
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