title: Early diagnosis of ovarian carcinoma: is a solution in sight?
abstract: Ovarian cancer is the most lethal of the gynecologic malignancies. Because ovarian cancer symptoms are subtle and nonspecific, the diagnosis is often delayed until the disease is well advanced. Overall 5-year survival is a rather dismal 50% but can be improved to greater than 90% if the disease is confined to the ovary at the time of diagnosis (generally in fewer than 25% of patients). Effective screening tools are currently not available. Owing to the rather low incidence of the disease in the general population, potential screening tests must provide very high specificity to avoid unnecessary interventions in false-positive cases. This article reviews currently available serum biomarkers and imaging tests for the early detection of ovarian cancer and provides an outlook on the potential improvements in these noninvasive diagnostic tools that may lead to successful implementation in a screening program.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  http://radiology.rsna.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1148/radiol.11090563/-/DC1.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Bio-X Program, Stanford University School of Medicine, 318 Campus Dr, Room E150, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Amelie M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Lutz
authors.forename: Jürgen K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Willmann
authors.forename: Charles W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Drescher
authors.forename: Pritha
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.forename: Frank V
authors.initials: FV
authors.lastname: Cochran
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Urban
authors.forename: Sanjiv S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Gambhir
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D018394:CA-125 Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D003287:Contrast Media; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018394:CA-125 Antigen; D003287:Contrast Media