Ovarian Cancer Symptoms, Signs & Treatment: New Test Detects 86% of Cases - Better Screening, Earlier Diagnosis?

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A new ovarian cancer test showed that it can detect the disease accurately with 86 percent compared with the traditional test with only 41 percent.

The test was created by the scientists of Australia's University of New South Wales and applied in a large trial by the researchers at London's University College. According to International Business Times, this method could possibly widen the scope of screening ovarian cancer and increase its survival rates because its symptoms are hard to detect during its early stages.

"Our findings indicate that this can be an accurate and sensitive screening tool when used in the context of a woman's pattern of CA125 over time. What's normal for one woman may not be so for another. It is the change in levels of this protein that's important," said Ian Jacobs from UNSW.

Ovarian cancer is dubbed as a "silent killer" because it is rarely diagnosed early since the symptoms of the disease are mild or have the same symptoms with other conditions. According to Women's Health, some early symptoms of ovarian cancer include pelvic and abdominal pain, nausea, bloating or indigestion, pain during intercourse, and abnormal bleeding.

If the cancer is caught earlier, then the cure and survival rate is more than 85 percent. For cases that are detected too late, the cancer has already spread which make it harder to contain and result in the death of most patients die after a few years.

Ovarian cancer can be treated in a number of ways such as surgery, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and targeted therapy. According to American Cancer Society, it is often recommended that 2 two or more treatment types are used.

Professor Usha Menon of UCL also expressed via IB Times that, "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 UCL expert added, "These results are therefore very encouraging. They show that use of an early detection strategy based on an individual's CA125 profile significantly improved cancer detection compared to what we've seen in previous screening trials."

"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," professor Menon stated.