Early Detection of Ovarian Cancer

Early detection of ovarian cancer could reduce mortality by 10% to 30%. Effective screening requires high sensitivity (>75%) and extremely high specificity (99.7%). Clinical trials suggest the best specificity is achieved with 2-stage strategies in which increasing serum CA125 level triggers transvaginal sonography to detect a malignant pelvic mass, although evidence for such approaches improving overall survival has been limited. Screening may be improved by combining CA125 with novel biomarkers, such as autoantibodies, circulating tumor DNA, or microRNAs. In order to detect premetastatic ovarian cancers originating in the distal fallopian tube, more sensitive approaches to diagnostic imaging are required.