title: Screening for ovarian cancer.
abstract: Whilst the majority of patients with ovarian cancer present with advanced stage disease and have a poor prognosis, the outlook for women with stage I disease is relatively good. An effective screening test for early stage ovarian cancer may therefore result in a significant improvement in ovarian cancer statistics. Extremely high specificity is an essential requirement of any potential screening test in view of the need for surgical investigation of women with a positive test result. No single test has yet demonstrated sufficient specificity when used alone to screen apparently healthy postmenopausal women. A multimodal approach incorporating serum CA-125 measurement, pelvic examination and real time ultrasonography has achieved high levels of specificity. The sensitivity of this screening programme for early stage ovarian cancer is currently under investigation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, London Hospital, Whitechapel, UK.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Oram
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D008722:Methods; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor