Ovarian cancer early detection/screening
Screening
Tests and exams used to find a disease, such as cancer, in people who do not have any symptoms
Early detection
Using an approach that lets ovarian cancer get diagnosed earlier than otherwise might have occurred.
Can ovarian cancer be found early?
-About 20% of ovarian cancers are found at an early stage.
-When ovarian cancer is found early at a localized stage, about 94% of patients live longer than 5 years after diagnosis.
-Several studies are in progress to learn the best ways to find ovarian cancer in its earliest stage.
Ways to find ovarian cancer early
-Regular women's health exams
-See a doctor if you have symptoms
-Screening tests for ovarian cancer
Regular women's health exams
-During a pelvic exam, the doctor feels the ovaries and uterus for size, shape and consistency.
-A pelvic exam can be useful because it can find some reproductive system cancers at an early stage, but most early ovarian tumors are difficult or impossible for even the most skilled examiner to feel.
-Pelvic exams may, however, help identify other cancers or gynecologic conditions.
-Women should discuss the need for these exams with their doctor.
-The Pap test is effective in early detection of cervical cancer, but it isn’t a test for ovarian cancer. Rarely ovarian cancers are found through Pap tests, but usually these are at an advanced stage.
See a doctor if you have symptoms
-If you have symptoms similar to those of ovarian cancer almost daily for more than a few weeks, and they can't be explained by other more common conditions, report them to your doctor (preferably a gynecologist) right away.
Screening tests for ovarian cancer
-Screening tests and exams are used to detect a disease, like cancer, in people who don’t have any symptoms.
-There has been a lot of research to develop a screening test for ovarian cancer, but there hasn’t been much success so far.
-The 2 tests used most often to screen for ovarian cancer are transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS) and the CA-125 blood test.
Transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS)
-TVUS is a test that uses sound waves to look at the uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries by putting an ultrasound wand into the vagina.
-It can help find a mass (tumor) in the ovary, but it can't actually tell if a mass is cancer or benign.
-it is used for screening, most of the masses found are not cancer.
Screening tests for ovarian cancer
-CA-125 is a protein in the blood.
-In many women with ovarian cancer, levels of CA-125 are high.
-This test can be useful as a tumor marker to help guide treatment in women known to have ovarian cancer, because a high level often goes down if treatment is working.
-But CA-125 has not been found to be as useful as a screening test for ovarian cancer.
-In studies of women at average risk of ovarian cancer, using TVUS and CA-125 for screening led to more testing and sometimes more surgeries, but did not lower the number of deaths caused by ovarian cancer.
-For that reason, no major medical or professional organization recommends the routine use of TVUS or the CA-125 blood test to screen for ovarian cancer.
-Better ways to screen for ovarian cancer are being researched.
-Hopefully, improvements in screening tests will eventually lead to a lower ovarian cancer death rate.
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