ASCO Annual Meeting: Ovarian Cancer: Some Hope in the Quest for an Effective Screening Method

Note: "The prospective study of 3,238 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 74 with no significant family history of breast or ovarian cancer, enrolled over a course of nine years."
CHICAGO—In the continuing quest for an effective screening method to detect ovarian cancer at an early stage, a new approach using an algorithm has shown promise in early testing as reported here at the ASCO Annual Meeting and featured beforehand in a teleconference by the society.

The Risk of Ovarian Cancer Algorithm (ROCA) is based on patient age and fluctuations in CA-125 blood levels, and in a study of 3,238 postmenopausal women, the approach proved feasible, with a specificity of 99.9%, said lead author Karen H. Lu, MD, Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The approach failed to detect two borderline cases, but no invasive ovarian cancers were missed.

“Could these borderline cases become invasive later? It's possible, but biologically, they tend to act differently,” she said....cont'd