Routine screening for ovarian cancer could prevent the deaths of as many as 200 Australian women a year, according to a new study.
The Australian reports on the study, headed by University of NSW Vice-Chancellor Ian Jacobs, which found that one in five ovarian cancer deaths could be avoided through screening.
‘This could prevent about 30,000 women a year worldwide succumbing to the disease, a relatively common and particularly dangerous form of cancer,’ the report says.
The remarkable findings were published overnight in The Lancet, and have been picked up by The New York Times, among other publications.
The report suggests that women should be scanned for ovarian cancer in the same way as they are routinely scanned for breast cancer.
Professor Jacobs said, while breast cancer was more common, ovarian cancer was more lethal.
Breast cancer screening has its own complications, in that it sometimes detects tumours that might never develop into cancer, leading to unnecessary treatment and surgery.
“There does not seem to be a similar issue in ovarian cancer,’ Professor Jacobs said.
The study tracked more than 200,000 women for up to 14 years. A quarter were screened annually using a blood test that gauged changes in levels of the protein “CA125” — a natural indicator of ovarian cancer — followed by an ultrasound scan.
Another 50,000 participants were screened only with ultrasound scans while the remaining 100,000 were not screened.
The analysis found that the two-step screening process reduced ovarian cancer deaths by between 15 per cent and 28 per cent compared with no screening.
